THIRTEEN SERMONS 



ON 



CRIMES OF AN ENORMOUS NATURE, 



AND 



THE CRIMES OF PUBLIC MEN. 



^'^/4^-v^vt 



iE. 



1. Hypocrisy and Cruelty, 

3. Drunkenness, 
8. Bribery, 

4. The Eights of the Poor, 

5. Unjust Judges, 

6. The Sluggard, 



7. Murder, 

8. Gaming, 

9. Public Kobbery, 

10. The Unnatural Mother, 

11. Forbidding Marriage, 

12. Parsons and Tithes, 



13. (rood l?riday. 

TO WHICH 13 ADDED 

AN ADDRESS TO THE WORKING PEOPLE. 




PHIL ADELPHIA ! Of WASH\^?^^^ 
PUBLISHED BY W. A. LEAHY, 
No. 138 NORTH SECOND STREET. 






CONTENTS. 

Tags 

I. Naboth's Vineyard ; or, God's Vengeance agaiE 3t 

Hypocrisy and Cruelty 3 

«. The Sin of Drunkenness, in Kings, Priests, and 

People ' ^^ 

%, The Fall of Judas : or, God's Vengeance against 

Bribery ^ 

4, The Rights of the Poor, and the Punishment of 

Oppressors - - -----63 

5. God's Judgment on Unjust Judges - - - 86 
C. The Sluggard 1^5 

7. God's Vengeance against Murderers - - - 124 

8. The Gamester ^44 

3. God's Vengeance against p. "iblic Robbers - - 163 

10. The Unnatural Mother - - - - - - - 172 

.1 The Sin of Forbidding Marriage - - - - 1^5 

12. On the Duties of Parsons, and on the Institution 

and Objects of Tithes 200 

13. Good Friday 226 

Dead Body Rill 243 

Note to Sermon on Gambling - - - - 277 
Extracts -- - • - • •• -277 



NABOTH'S VINEYARD, 

OB, 

GOD'S VENGEANCE 

AGAINST 

HYPOCRISY AND CRUELTY. 



• And she wrote in the letters, saying, Proclaim a fasf^ 
and set Naboth on high among the people ; and set two 
men, sons of Belial, before him, to bear witness against him, 
saying, Tliou didst blaspheme God and the King. And then 
carry him out, and stone him, that he may die."— 1 Kings, 
chap. xxi. ver. 9, 10. 



Hypocrisy, in the general acceptation of the 
word, is dissimulation, or deceit, with regard to 
virtuous thoughts and conduct, and especially wiih 
regard to religious matters. It is a pretending to 
feei what we do not feel, to believe what we do not 
believe, to practise what we do not practise. It is 
an odious vice: it is greatly mischievous, because, 
by assuming the garb of, it reflects,^ in the hour of 
detection, disgrace, upon virtue itself: it must be 
founded in evil design, because it proceeds from 
cool deliberation and calculation : it includes lying 
and fraud: its natural tendency is to produce injury 
to our neighbour and to dishonour real religion : 
accordingly, numerous are God's denunciations 
against it, and numerous are the instances, in 
which Holy Writ holds it up as visited with signal 
vengeance. 



4 NABOTH^S VINEYARD. 

In this vice, as in most others, there are, how- 
ever, degrees. Sometimes it is practised for the 
purpose of avoiding the suspicions, or merited ill- 
will, of other men ; sometimes for the purpose of 
obtaining the confidence of others, without any 
settled design to make it the means of committing 
any positive and particular injury ; on other, and 
much more frequent, occasions, it is employed to 
lull suspicion asleep, to inspire unbounded confi- 
dence, and this for the purpose of securely commit- 
ting, in the end, some act of gainful fraud. 

Hypocrisy, being a false pretending, may exist 
without any pretence to piety ; but, it is always 
prone, to assume a religious garb ; that being the 
best calculated to deceive good, and therefore un- 
suspecting, persons. When once the hypocrite has 
assumed this garb, there are few things that he 
will stick at ; the necessary preliminary being, a 
setting of the admonitions of conscience at defiance. 
Thus hardened, the hypocrite will proceed to al- 
most any lengths. First, he endeavours to obtain 
his object by exciting in others a high opinion of 
his own purity ; but, should this fail him, should 
he be thwarted in his career, he will fall to compa- 
risons between himself and those by whom he is 
thwarted. He next proceeds to slanders, calum- 
nies, and even to false swearings against them ; 
and, rather than finally fail in attaining the fruit of 
his long premeditated schemes, he will, without the 
least remorse, dip his hands in the blood of the in- 
nocent. 

The Bible, in numerous cases, condemns the 
principles and practices of the hypocrite. It in 
almost every instance associates malice with hypo- 
crisy. It almost every where assumes that the 
hypocrite is both cruel and perfidious ; and, it every 



HYPOCRISY AND CRUELTY. 5 

where pronounces upon the hypocrite the severest 
of sentences. In the Book of Job, Chap. viii. v. 13. 
it is declared, that "the hypocrite's hope shall pe- 
rish." In Chap. XX. v. 5. we are told, '• the tri- 
umphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the 
hypocrite but for a moment." The whole of this 
chapter goes on to enumerate vengeances upon his 
head. It is declared that he shall be rendered 
miserable; that he shall become old even in his 
youth ; that the meat in his bowels shall be turned 
into gall ; that he shall suck down the poison of 
asps ; that in the fulness of his sufficiency he shall 
be in straits ; that, in short, the heritage appointed 
to him by God shall be an endless curse upon him- 
self and his posterity. 

But, we have, in this same chapter of the Book 
of Job, a description of the objects which the hypo- 
crite generally has in view. We are told in ver. 
15, that, "he hath swallowed down riches, and he 
shall vomit them up again." We are further told 
where he has got the riches ; thus : " lie hath op- 
pressed, and hath forsaken the 'poor : he hath 
violently taken away an house which he builded 
not." 

Thus, as was before observed, hypocrisy has 
generally gainful fraud for its object. Hypocrisy 
is by no means a theoretical vice. It is practical ; 
and its object is always self-interest. It sometimes 
proceeds by round about means. Its object is not 
always manifest to lookers on ; there are steps, and 
sometimes steps hardly discernible; but it always 
is its ultimate object, to get, or to preserve, posses- 
sion of, something or other, which, in right and 
justice, the hypocrite ought not to possess. If this 
possession can be obtained, or preserved, without 
violence ; if, to use the v/ords just quoted, of good 
1* 



Job, the hypocrite can take away a " house which 
he builded not ;" if he can do this without violence, 
he will be content ; but if he cannot, he will resort 
to the violence. If he can carry 'his point with a 
smaller degree of oppression, he will abstain from 
the larger degree; but if he cannot, he Avill exer- 
cise oppression, even to the shedding of the blood 
of his unoffending neighbour. 

These truths might be illustrated by thousands 
of examples ; and I may, hereafter, show the deso- 
lation which hypocrisy has occasioned in the latter 
ages of the world. I may, hereafter, show how 
this detestable vice has spread the rack, and fur- 
nished the stake, with not only innocent, but most 
virtuous human beings. At present, however, let me 
beseech the reader's best attention to that remark- 
able instance of hypocrisy and cruelty, recorded in 
the xxist chap, of the first Book of Kings, in the his- 
tory of the tragical death of Naboth the Jezreelite. 
For, m this history, w^e have a true and complete 
picture of the character of hypocrisy ; of its great 
and almost invariable object ; and of the horrible 
means Avhich it employs, when driven to its last 
resort. 

Ahab, the king of Samaria, had taken a fancy 
to the vineyard of Naboth, which lay hard by hi's 
palace. He made a ' proposition to Naboth for 
the purchase of the vineyard. Naboth, not out of 
any wilfulness or obstinacy; but out of a natural 
and laudable desire to preserve in his family that 
which had descended to him from his ancestors, re- 
fused, saying, " The Lord forbid it me, that I should 
give unto thee the inheritance of my fathers." 

What could be more reasonable; what more 
praiseworthy than the ground of this refusal? 
Here was disinterestedness; for there can be no 



HYPOCRISY AND CRUELTY. 7 

•doubt that Naboth might have received double the 
real worth of his vineyard. But gain had no 
weight with him when put in the scale against 
reverence for the memory of his forefathers. A re- 
fusal, proceeding from such a sentiment, ought not 
only to have been sufficient to obviate the giving of 
offence to Ahab ; but it ought to have given great 
pleasure to the king, who ought to have felt proud 
to think that he was the sovereign of subjects of 
the high sentiments of whom he here had so 
striking a specimen. 

Very different, however, were the consequences 
with regard to poor Naboth. The king, who 
was a weak and childish sort of being, became 
miserable on account of this refusal ; appeared 
greatly dejected; was plunged into melancholy, 
and would neither eat nor drink. The queen, Je- 
zebel, however, was of a different character. She, 
who seems to have carried hypocrisy to its state of 
deadly perfection, Avas not long in falling upon the 
means of gratifying the wishes of her husband, 
without consulting Naboth, and without giving 
any thing for the vineyard, either in money or in 
kind. " Let thine heart be merry," said she, " for 
I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jez- 
reelite." 

And now, ^ve are going to see how hypocrisy 
goes to work, in order to effect its object ; which 
object, be it never forgotten, always is to preserve, 
or to obtain possession of, that which of right and 
justice does not belong to the hypocrite. Jezebel 
saw clearly that it was useless to endeavour to 
prevail upon Naboth by temptations of lucre; be- 
cause his refusal was founded upon principle. 
She, therefore, conceived the truly diabolical pro- 
ject of bringing against him a false accusation ; and 



8 naboth's vineyard. 

that the accusation might he such as to insure 
his destruction, and at the same time deprive him 
of the compassion of his fellow subjects, she caused 
him to be accused of blasphemy ; a very horrid 
crime in the eyes of all good men ; and, therefore, 
the best calculated for the effecting of her nefarious 
purpose. * But, now, mark well the dreadful means 
that she resorted to. She wrote letters in her hus- 
band's name to the Nobles and to the Elders ; that 
is to say, to the nobles and the magistrates, which 
magistrates were also the Judges. In these let- 
ters she desired the persons to whom they were 
written, to proclaim a fast, or religious festival ; 
for w^e always find that when injustice and cruelty 
of the most atrocious and horrible description are 
about to be committed, the pretence of extreme 
piety, and the most glaring outward show of religion, 
are put in the fore-ground. *'■ Proclaim a fast ;" 
said this wicked woman, " and set Naboth on 
high, amongst the people ; then set two men, sons 
of Belial, (that is to say, men of desperate wicked- 
ness) before him, to bear witness against him, say- 
ing, thou didst blaspheme God and the king; and 
then carry him out and stone him, that he may die,^^ 

Horrible as was the import of this message, the 
base nobles, and the baser Judges, did as Jezebel 
had sent unto them. They proclaimed the solemn 
fast; they hoisted the religious banners; they in- 
voked the assistance of the Almighty : they set 
Naboth on high among the people; they brought 
the two false witnesses to swear against him ; and 
then, followed by the deluded crowd, they carried 
him forth out of the city, and he was " stoned with 
stones that he died!" 

Were it not for the information which history 
has afforded us, we should be led to believe, that 



HYPOCRISY AND CRUELTY. U 

this was an imaginary case, or parable, intended to 
illustrate the workings of the most deadly hypocri- 
sy, and to show, in the sequel, the consequences to 
the principal actors in the cruel and bloody scene. 
For, Avhat do we behold here? We behold Nobles 
and Judges engaged coolly and deliberately in the 
work of finding out and hiring false witnesses to 
take away the life of an innocent man. We be- 
hold them resorting to the shameless act of em- 
ploying the most infamous of mankind for this 
purpose. We behold them sitting in a mockery of 
judgment on this innocent man; and we behold 
them, with unmoved countenances, seeing him 
stoned to death, in execution of their judgment, 
founded upon the evidence of Avretches whom they 
had themselves hired to swear falsely against him. 
And, which is the finishing stroke to the picture, 
we behold them doing these things under the mask 
of religion ; on the day of a solemn festival ; and 
for the pretended purpose of punishing blasphemy! 

The Bible does not tell us what were the feel- 
ings with which these base nobles, and these unjust 
judges, retired to their homes, and laid their heads 
upon their pillows. They had succeeded in ac- 
complishing their bloody work ; and we are left to 
suppose that they finally received their reward in 
the chastisement which God has reserved for the 
unjust and bloody-minded. 

But with regard to the instigators to this crying 
sin, the Bible has taken care not to leave us to con- 
jecture or inference. It has given us a full account 
of, the consequences, to them, of this work of hypo- 
crisy and cruelty. The king, who had not, indeed, 
been an actor in the matter, but who had sanc- 
tioned the proceedings of his wife, by making no 
remonstrance against her conduct, and, still more 



10 naboth's vineyard. 

explicitly, by going in person and taking posses- 
sion of the vineyard of the murdered Naboth; the 
king, warned by the prophet, began to humble 
himself; he tasted of evil all his days ; he was 
killed by his enemies in battle ; and according to 
the sentence passed upon "him, the dogs licked up 
his blood, as they had licked up the blood of Na- 
BOTH. The forefathers of Naboth were not al- 
lowed to have weight with him. His truly pious 
sentiments Avith respect to ancestry and posterity 
were not listened to. The Lord, therefore cut off 
the posterity of Ahae. Jehu slew his son in the 
very vineyard which had belonged to Naboth, 
" Surely J. have seen yesterday the blood of Na- 
both, and the blood of his sons," saith the Lord; 
" and I will requite thee in this plat (^ ground." 

Having slain the son and successor of Ahab, 
Jehu proceeded to the rest of his work, and slew 
all the children of the destroyer of Naboth and 
his children. Jezebel was punished in a most 
singular manner. She was looking out of a win- 
dow, and Jehu said, " Throw her down. So thejr 
threw her down: and some of her blood was 
sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses ; and he 
trod her under foot. And when he was come in, 
he did eat and drink, and said, Go, see now this 
cursed woman, and bury her: for she is a king's 
daughter: and they went to bury her: but they 
found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, 
and the palms of her hands. Therefore they came 
again, and told him. And he said, This is the 
word of the Lord, which he spake by his servant 
Elijah, the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of 
Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel. 
And the carcase of Jezebel shall be as dung upon 
the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel; so 



HYPOCRISY AND CRUELTY. 11 

that they shall not say, This is Jezebel." 2 Kings, 
chap. ix. 

Thus we have the whole history : the object ; the 
means of accomplishment ; the manner of the accom- 
plishment; the success of the contemplated crime; 
and finally, the signal and awful punishment of the 
criminals. At first sight we are stricken with hor- 
ror at the punishment inflicted upon Jezebel. But, 
looking back at her offence ; viewing the coolness 
of her cruelty towards Naboth ; seeing her insti- 
gating magistrates, and judges themselves, to su- 
born wretches to swear away the life of an innocent 
man ; and, above all things, seeing her effect this 
bloody purpose with all the insignia of religious 
ceremony drawn forth, and under a pretence of un- 
common revegrence for God, and an uncommonly 
anxious desire to prevent his name from being blas- 
phemed ; when we consider these things, can we 
say that her punishment was too severe ? can we 
say that her carcase ought not to have been ** as 
dung upon the face of the field?" 

Let us now look back : let us re-consider the 
whole of this history. Here we see that to get at the 
property of others is the object of hypocrisy. Jeze- 
bel would not have brought the charge of blas- 
phemy against Naboth, if Naboth had had no- 
thing of which she wished to obtain possession. This 
was the grand object. This it was that excited her 
pretended zeal in the cause of religion. The unfor- 
tunate Jezreelite was in possession of a thing 
which she wanted to possess. He, very naturally, 
desired to keep his own. She had no means of tak- 
ing it from him by law, or under any colour of law ,; 
and, therefore, she resorted to the false accusation 
of blasphemy. 

It is material to observe^ that the crime of bias- 



12 naboth's vineyard. 

phemy was selected, in preference to any other 
crime, for reasons which, are obvious enough. In 
the first place, this crime consists in the utterance 
of word merely. If the crime, falsely imputed, had 
been that of robbery, or murder, it would have been 
more difficult to satisfy the minds of the people on 
the score of proof The positive evidence must have 
been corroborated by facts and circumstances. There 
must have been some one robbed ; there must have 
been some one killed. The bare words, or bare 
paths, of two witnesses, would not have been suffi- 
cient to justify in the minds of the people the horri- 
ble act of stoning a man to death. Besides it was 
necessary to select a crime, with regard to which 
reason has much less to do with the populace than 
passion. Men do not reason upon subjects where 
their hopes and fears are deeply engaged. The 
mass of mankind, having adopted certain opinions 
with regard to their eternal happiness or misery, 
are not only shocked at, but are filled with anger 
against, any one who does or says any thing which 
tends to shake those opinions. Besides this, self-love 
rises up, human pride pushes forward, with volumes 
of resentment on their tongues, against him who 
ventures to treat with levity, and especially to hold 
up as fabulous, a thing which the mass of mankind 
have regarded, not only in the most serious light, 
but as an object worthy of their constant attention 
all their life through. To this may be added, that 
no small portion of every people will always think 
that they have a certain degree of merit with God, 
if they discover particular zeal in the cause of reli- 
gion; and it is by no means strange, if they find it 
much easier to give proof of this zeal by showing 
their decided and inveterate hostility to men accu- 
sed of a want of religion, than by carefully, constant- 



HYPOCRISY AND CRUELTY. 13 

ly, and quietly practising the christian virtues of 
gentleness, forbearance, and charity. ^ 

For all these reasons, and many others that might 
be mentioned, hlas^hemy is always the crime which 
hypocrisy will select to be falsely imputed, as the 
means of accomplishing its plundering purposes. 
Accuse men of robbery, of murder, of incest, or of 
any other crime, and the people wait patiently for 
the trial and the proof. These are crimes w^hich 
their brother christians frequently commit. But 
accuse men of blasphemy ; take that word for your 
means ; mark the victim with hlaspheviy on his 
forehead ; you thereby mark him out as an object 
for general abhorrence. No reasoning comes to 
bespeak the patience of your hearers, or to guide 
them to a just and merciful decision ; guilt is taken 
for granted ; the victim falls ; and the hypocrite is 
glutted with the plunder. Of all the crimes impu- 
ted to mortal man, blasphemy is that of which peo- 
ple in general require the slightest proof, and to 
which they are always ready to award the most 
cruel of punishments. 

Jezebel, together with the nobles and magis- 
trates of Samaria, seem to have been fully aware of 
this. They took special care to disguise the real 
object of the persecution of Naboth. They said 
not a word about the vineyard. They did not com- 
plain to the people that Naboth was an obstinate 
man ; that he had been rude to the king ; that he 
had refused to let him have the inheritance of his 
fathers, whether for money, or in the way of bar- 
ter ; they did not let it transpire, that his life was 
sought because he would not part with his proper- 
ty ; they took extremely good care to invent some- 
thing that should enlist the passions of the people 
on their side ; and that should make even good men 
2 



14 naboth's vineyard. 

approve of a deed, which, if those good men had 
known the real truth, could, in all probability, not 
have been perpetrated. The real motive wx)uld not 
bear the light. The false motive was absolutely 
necessary; and we ought, therefore, always to be up- 
on our guard as to matters of this kind. When we 
hear our neighbour railed against as a blasjjJiemer, 
and especially when w^e see him seriously arraigned 
upon such an imputation, we ought not to decide 
hastily against him : common justice demands that 
we coolly and impartially enquire into the grounds 
of the accusation; that we become acquainted, if 
possible, with the life and conversation of our ac- 
cused neighbour, or fellow-subject ; for if, without 
these precautions, we condemn our neighbour ; and 
especially if we contribute, in the smallest degree, • 
to his death or ruin, we justly incur liability to all 
the penalties which God has, over and over again, 
awarded to those which shall be guilty of unjust 
judgment ; there being, in the clear eye of reason 
and of conscience, but very little difference indeed 
between the crime of the unjust Judge and that of 
the persons who wink at, or approve of his conduct, 
such persons being, in fact, his aiders and abettors. 

It is necessary for us to keep constantl^r in view, 
that the object of hypocrisy is plunder. Hypocrisy 
works in various ways ; it discovers itself in va- 
rious forms ; it has halting places in its career ; 
but its ultimate object is plunder. Its means is per- 
secution of some sort or other ; cruelty, if cruelty 
be necessary. Murder in this or that form; if 
nothing short of murder will do. But to get at the 
property of others, and to secure that property,* are 
the objects. 

There is another circumstance suggested by the 
history of the murder of Naboth, proceeding, as 



HYPOCRISY AND CRUELTY. 15 

It did, from a charge of blasphemy ; and that is, 
that this charge has, for the most part, been pre- 
ferred, not only from motives of plunder, but by 
persons of the most profligate characters and lives; 
and, for the far greater part, by those who w^ere , 
themselves most impious. We find this same Je- 
zebel, this accuser of Naboth, an idolatress, and 
a bitter enemy of the prophet Elijah. We find 
her plotting the destruction of the prophet, and 
only missing her aim by the flight of the prophet. 
We find her the most profligate person in all the 
walks of life; setting at defiance every rule of de- 
corum, and even of decency. We shall too, if we 
look into history of more modern date, find that, in 
general, the first to prefer accu^tions of blasphe- 
wy are persons who themselves have not the 
smallest sense of religion. 

The hypocrite has only to persuade the people 
that he is actuated by pious motives, and that the 
punishment he is inflicting is for the support of 
religion ; he has only to take care of these two 
things, and he may almost skin his victim alive in 
the presence of the populace. Good, gentle, kind, 
mi)st benevolent, and most humane persons ; per- 
sons who shudder at the thought of cruelty under 
all other circumstances, are, in cases like this ; in 
cases where religion is concerned ; in cases where 
blasphemy is the charge preferred: in such cases, 
they are furious as beasts of prey ; or, at best, un- 
feeling as stocks and stones. 

But, is such the conduct to be expected of good 
men ? Is such the conduct to be expected of men 
who found their hope of salvation in being follow- 
ers of Him who taught the sacred duties of for- 
bearance and benevolence? Such persons may 
endeavour to reconcile their conduct to their con- 



i6 naboth's vineyard. 

sciences by affecting to believe, that their cruelty, 
or their approving of cruelty, towards persons who 
are called blasphemers, may have a tendency to 
prevent blasphemy. But, it is pretty clear, that in 
this they deceive themselves ; and that they will find, 
that they ought not to indulge in speculations upon 
what may be, or what may not be, the effect of 
their conduct. Every line of that gospel by Avhich 
they profess to regulate their conduct, teaches the 
duties of forbearance in judging as well as in act- 
ing ; and, above all things, forbids man to commit 
deliberate cruelty, whether in word or in deed. 
' The Christian's duty, when a charge of blas- 
phemy is preferred against his neighbour, a charge 
so difficult to d#fine, and so easily made; the 
Christian's duty, in such a case, and, indeed, in 
every other case where a charge is preferred 
against his neighbour, but more especially in this 
case, is to divest himself wholly of all self-love, of 
all the considerations which would make him a 
paj-ty in the question, before he attempt to pass 
judgment on his neighbour. " Judge not that ye be 
not judged," says the gospel. — " In righteousness 
shalt thou judge thy neighbour," says the law. Law 
and gospel in every line forbid unjust judgment. 
They forbid even hasty judgment ; and the man 
who w^ill at once join in the cry of blasphemy 
against his neighbour, will find it difficult to con- 
vince any reasonable person that he would not have 
joined in the stoning of Naboth to death, and 
that he would have been the last amongst those 
who cried out for the saving of Barabbas, and for 
the sending of Jesus himself to the cross ! Such 
a man may quiet his own conscience, perhaps; 
but he will find it difficult to persuade the upright 
amongst mankind that he is worthy of respect; 



HYPOCRISY AND CRUELTY. 17 

and, as to his account with God, all that we know 
is, that he cannot there deceive by means of hypo- 
crisy ! 

Has such a man forgotten that Jesus Christ 
himself was accused of blasphemy ? Has he for- 
gotten that the hypocrites accused him of being a 
blasphemer ? How they bellowed out, " Now you 
have heard his blasphemy ?^^ Has such a man 
forgotten that blasphemy was the genera] charge 
preferred against Christ and his apostles? And 
from what motive? Only because their teaching 
tended to put a stop to the plunder of the hypocrites 
of that day. Those whose gainful frauds Christ 
and his apostles detected and exposed, took care, 
like the nobles and judges of. Samaria, not to 
complain of this detection and exposure. They 
affected not to have those in their eye, any more 
than the judges of Samaria had the vineyard of 
Naboth in their eye. It was, however, the expo- 
sure in the one case, as it had been the vineyard in 
the other, which constituted the real offence. Bui 
blasphemy was the efficient accusation : that seized 
hold of popular feeling: that hardened the hearts 
of the people against the pretended offenders ; and 
thus hypocrisy indulged its love of plunder under 
the garb of zeal for religion. 

Is it not then our duty ; is it not, with all these 
instances, all these lessons, all these admonitions 
of God himself before us, our bounden duty to 
watch well our conduct ; to keep a strict guard as 
to our actions, and even as to our words and 
thoughts, when our neighbour is exhibited unto us 
under the hateful name of blasphemer ? Does any 
Christian believe that the history of the abomina- 
tions of Jezebel was put upon record by the com- 
mand of God, without being intended to serve us 
2* 



18 naboth's vineyard. 

as a guide in cases where charges of blasphemy 
shall be preferred ? Does any man, calling him- 
self a Christian, look upon the xxist chapter of the 
1st Book of Kings, and upon theixth chapter of the 
2d Book of Kings, as containing the beginning 
and .he sequel of a sort of tragical fable, given to 
us for our diversion or amusement ? No : he looks 
upon them as given to us for our instruction, to 
be sure ; to caution us against acting as the peo- 
ple of Jezreel did; that is to say, against lending a 
ready ear to falsehoods preferred against our neigh- 
bour ; and against joining in causing his destruc- 
tion, when we ought to come to his assistance and 
support. 

To blaspheme, in the language of Scripture, 
means to speak evil of. Blasphemy, used by itself, 
means to speak evil of God. This offence is, per- 
fectly monstrous. It is really out of nature. But, 
on that very account, w^e ought to be extraordinarily 
careful how we impute it to any one; and not less 
careful to ascertain the truth of the charge, when 
the crime is imputed by others. We are always 
slower to believe that our neighbour has been guilty 
of theft, than we are to believe that he has been 
guilty of any act of mere deceit in his dealings. 
Nothing short of the clearest evidence will induce 
us to believe that a man has killed his father or his 
mother; yet neither of these is more unnatural 
than for a man to speak evil of God. It is wrong, 
perhaps, to say that any thing can be more unna- 
tural than for a son to murder his mother ; yet, if it 
be possible, it is still more unnatural to speak evil 
of God ; because to the latter there is no possible 
temptation ; and, to do a thing, for the doing of 
which it is impossible to divine a motive, is some- 
thing which ought not to be regarded as possible, 



HYPOCRISY AND CRUELTY. 19 

tintil there be produced proof of the fact, clear as 
the sun at noon-day. 

With what care, then, ought we to proceed in the 
making, or in the giving of our countenance to, 
imputations of a crime so unnatural and so mon- 
strous ! The crime is great : the greater the cau- 
tion, therefore, in giving credence to its having been 
committed. If, indeed, we be ready prepared, iike 
the base judges of Samaria, to believe loose and 
vague charges, supported by perjured witnesses, or 
built upon far-fetched constructions and interpreta- 
tion/; then there needs no caution at all : the word 
blasjphemer joined to the name of our neighbour 
will be sufficient to obtain the hearty concurrence to 
the dragging of him forth and stoning him to death. 
But if, bearing in our minds the denunciation of 
God, so often repeated, and with such awful solem- 
nity; if, bearing in our minds this denunciation 
against unjust Judges and unjust judgments ; and 
also bearing in mind, that against unjust Judges the 
blood of the innocent, the widow and the fatherless, 
shall cry from the earth; if bearing these things in 
mind, we wish to be amongst those who shall be 
happy hereafter, we shall be Yerj careful how we, 
by act or word, contribute, though in the smallest 
degree, towards the condemnation of our neighbour, 
until we have well and truly examined every parti- 
cle of the charge against him ; until we have well 
weighed the probable, and even possible motive, of 
his accusers ; until we have arrived at a perfect 
conviction, that, in condemning him, we are not 
treading in the steps of the abominable abettors of 
Jezebel, and that we are not justly incurring the 
denunciation of being made food for the beasts of 
the forest and the fowls of the air : a denunciation, 
though terrible in itself, still short of what is due 



20 naboth's vineyard. 

to the crime of assisting* the hypocrite in seeking*, 
under the garb of sanctity, to gratify his appetite 
for plunder. 

Let no one hope to escape the punishment due to 
hypocrisy by pleading that he has not himself been 
the false accuser of his neighbour : let him not, 
when he has expressly or tacitly, given his assent 
to the cruel deeds of hypocrisy, hope, with Pontius 
Pilate, to escape by exclaiming, " I am innocent of 
the blood of this just iperson: see ye to it." Let 
no one hope to escape by a subterfuge like this. 
Pilate saw that the judgment w^as unjust, and yet he 
assented to it in order to avoid giving offence to the 
prosecutors, a baser and more wicked act than 
which it is hardly possible to imagine. Yet this 
is, in fact, the act of every man who assists hypo- 
crisy in the perpetration of its injustice and cruelty, 
whether that assistance be given actively, or by a 
silent assent. Every man, who, in any way, and 
from whatever motive, assents to an unjust judgment 
on his neighbour, acts not, indeed, precisely the part 
of Judas ; but he acts the part of the Chief Priests 
and Elders, which was by no means less detestable : 
he acts the part, not exactly of Jezebel and the 
sons of Belial; but he acts the part of Ahab, and 
of that pusillanimous and wretched king, he richly 
deserves the fate. In such a case there is no neu- 
trality. " He that is woi for us is against us." Not 
to prevent robbery or murder, having the power to 
do it, is to rob or to murder : not to endeavour to 
prevent injustice is to be unjust ; and, not to use all 
the means in our power to arrest the hypocrite in 
his cruel career is to merit that just vengeance, 
which God has denounced, and will not fail to 
execute, against hypocrisy and cruelty. 



THE SIN OF DRUNKENNESS 

IN 

KINGS, PRIESTS, AND PEOPLE. 



•*It is not for Kings to drink wine ; nor for Princes strong 
drink : lest they drink and forget the law, and pervert the 
judgment of any of the afflicted."— Proverbs, chap. xxxi. 
ver. 4, 5. 



It is but too common to find men talking much 
of RELIGION, and paying, at the same time, very 
little attention to the meaning of the word ; while 
they wholly neglect the practice of the thing 
itself Such persons seem to consider religion 
as little more than a watchword; as a sound 
that is intended to distinguish one class of people 
from another ; and to think, that so long as they 
use the word, they need care little about the matter 
that it is intended to describe. It is the having of the 
Bible, and the praising of the Bible that such persons 
deem matters of importance ; and not the studying 
of, and the adherence to, the precepts of the Bible. 

But, this is not the light in which religion ought 
to be viewed. To practice justice, mercy, charity, 
and other virtues, is natural to uncorrupted and 
unper verted human beings. That which strength- 
ens this natural propensity, or arrests the effect of 
corruption and perversion, and does this through 
the means of reverence for God, and an expecta- 
tion of future rewards and punishments, is- called 
Religion. So that religion means virtue, arising 
from considerations connected with a Supreme Be- 
ing, and with hopes and fears as to another world. 



22 SIN OF DRUNKENNESS, IN 

Virtue, in the sense of the word, means moral 
goodness ; and, therefore, to be religious, a man 
must be morally good ; and, to be morally good 
he must, at the least, abstain from doing that 
which is morally wicked. Religion calls upon 
him to go much further than this. It calls up- 
on him to do all the good in his power, whether 
as sovereign or subject, priest or neighbour, parent 
or child ; but, at the very least, it calls upon him to 
abstain from the practice of vice; and, if he obey 
not this call, his professions only serve to scanda- 
lize religion, and to insure his own condemnation. 

Vain is the notion, that religion consists in be- 
lieving in the truth of the doctrines of the Bible: vain 
is the notion that what is generally called faith con- 
stitutes religion. It, in fact, makes but a very small 
part of what constitutes religion, properly so called. 
The Word of God has been given for a rule of con- 
duct; and religion consists in oZ>^ym^ the rule, which 
is the best, and, indeed, the only way, in which we 
can prove our faith, faith being neither more nor 
less than our belief in the Divine origin of the 
rule. " Thou believest :" says the apostle James, 
(ch. ii. ver. 19,) " thou doest well. The Devils 
also believe.^^ And, alas ! How many men, who 
nearly resemble Devils in their conduct, do we 
hear clamorously professing their belief and perse- 
cuting, with fiend-like malice and cruelty, others 
whom they falsely call infidels ! The same apostle, 
in the same chapter sa3^s, that faith without works 
is nothing worth ; and he illustrates his meaning 
by putting a case where the giving of the hungry 
and naked a blessing is substituted for a gift of 
food and raiment. "Thou," he adds, "hast faith, 
and I have works : show me thy faith without thy 
works ; and I will show thee my faith by my works/' 



KINGS, PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. 23 

In estimating the religion of men, therefore, we 
oaght to inquire what is their conduct, and not 
what is their belief. On the latter point we have 
nothing to guide us but their professions, and these 
may be false ; but, as to the former, if our inquiry 
be strict and impartial, there can be no deception. 
And does not this rule perfectly correspond with 
our practice as to our own relationships in life ? 
Whether in the capacity of master or of servant, is 
it not the good or bad quality of the moral charac- 
ter and conduct of the party that forms the subject 
of inquiry ? Who, when forming a scheme of ma- 
trimonial connection, ever made the faith of the 
other party the chief subject of previous investiga- 
tion ? What man, in such a case, ever put it in the 
balance against chastity, industry, or even cleanli- 
ness of person ? 

Religion, then, means virtue, and virtue is evin- 
ced, not by the professions, but by the conduct, of 
men. As was before observed, religion calls for a 
great deal more than an abstinence from vice ; but, 
at the very least, it calls for that ; and, we may safe- 
ly conclude, that the vicious man, the man wilfully 
vicious, has no real religion in his heart, and, that^ 
if he call himself religious, he is both hypocritical 
and impious. 

Our first care, therefore, ought to be to abstain 
from vice. Many there are, and must be, in every 
community, who have not the power of doing con- 
spicuous good : but, it is in the power of every hu- 
man being to abstain, by some means or other, from 
doing what he knows to be wrong ; or, at the very 
least, to abstain from (Committing vice wilfully and 
wantonly, and even almost without temptation^ 
which must always be the case, when he indulges 



24 SIN OF DRUNKENNESS, IN 

in the vice, when he, indeed, commits the sin, pro- 
hibited in the words of my text. 

A great part of the misconduct of mankind and of 
the evils which we witness in the world, arises from 
the want of a clear comprehension of the nature of 
our duties ; and this want frequently arises from 
our not taking sufficient pains to understand the 
meaning of the words by which things are designa- 
ted. Nobody attempts to justify sin. All join in 
disapproving of sin ; but few take the pains to ascer- 
tam what sin really is. 

There prevails a sort of confused idea, that sin is 
something committed against God : and so it is ; 
but the error consists in believing that the thing 
done is an offence against God only ; while the fact 
IS, that it is an offence against our neighbour, in de- 
fiance of the laws of God. Just in the same way 
that we offend the King in doing wrong to our fel- 
low subjects, we offend God in doing wrong to our 
neighbour. In assaulting our neighbour we do no 
personal harm to the King. He is safe from the 
reach of our offensive weapons ; but his laws are 
offended by our act ; and, therefore, in his name we 
are punished. If the King be so far beyond the 
reach of our unlawful efforts, how much farther be- 
yond tliem is the King of kings ! 

Therefore, when we talk of sin, we mean, if we 
be rational, some offence committed against our 
neighbour ; that is to say, against some particular 
persons, or against the community in general ; and, 
of all the sins, of which man can be guilty, there is 
perhaps none, when we consider it in all its effects, 
greater than that of drunkenness ; and certainly 
none which admits of so small a degree of palliation. 

To other sins, or, at least, to the greater part of 
other sins, there is more or less of temptation. In 



KINGS, PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. 25 

cases where nature works so powerfully within us ; 
where reason itself is so frequently unequal to the 
task of resistance; where the propensity, when 
thwarted, produces sometimes the total loss of sani- 
ty, and, at others, urges the unhappy victim on to 
self-destruction : in such cases, though we dare not 
justify the gratification of the propensity, it becomes 
us to judge with great caution, and to feel much 
more of compassion than of anger. Those acts 
which are committed with, the view of appropria- 
ting to ourselves that which belongs to others, arise 
frequently from absolute want, or from a desire to 
avoid want. Even murder itself has, frequently, 
and most frequently, want to plead in mitigation. 
But, drunkenness is a man's own act ; an evil de- 
liberately sought after; an act of violence wilfully 
committed against reason, against nature, against 
the word and in the face of the denunciations of 
God ; and that, too, without the smallest temptation, 
except from that vicious appetite which the criminal 
himself has voluntarily created. 

That the lowest and most degraded of mankind 
should yield themselves up to such a vice ought to 
appear surprising ; because it is a vice committed 
against nature herself. What, then, must be our 
decision as to Kings, who should thus debase them- 
selves, degrade the character not only of the King 
but of the man, and set the commands of the Al- 
mighty at defiance, when they ought to be an ex-^ 
ample, and an ever-living light to guide the steps of 
their people ? Kings have been called the Vicege- 
rents of God, that is to say, they are Magistrates, 
who are to govern according to his laws. How 
wicked, therefore, how detestable the conduct of 
Kings, when they are conspicuous, not as obser- 
vers, but as breakers of those laws I 
3 



26 SIN or DRUNKENNESS, IN 

* In the words of my text the reasons are given 
why Kings should " not drink wine and Princes 
strong drink ;" and these reasons are, " lest they 
drink enad forget the law, and pervert the judgment 
of any o^ the afflicted.''^ And, when was the drunk- 
ard mindful of the law ? When was he mindful 
to discharge his duties ? When did he do justice 
to any ? When did he ever discover a merciful 
disposition ? When did he consider the case of the 
afflicted ? When did he evince that he had one par- 
ticle of humanity in his bosom? The sensual man 
is always unfeeling towards others ; and this impu- 
tation more particularly applies to the drunkard 
and the glutton. Subjects, neighbours, wife, chil- 
dren ; all that ought to occupy a great portion of his 
affections ; all are cast aside to make way for his 
inordinate and beastly appetites. 

" Woe to thee, O land, when thy King is a child, 
and thy Princes eat in the morning." Eccles. cL 
X. ver. 16. And in the next verse we are told, that 
the land is blessed, "when Princes eat in due 
season, for strength, and not for drunkenness^ 
These are words which ought to be borne in mind 
by all Magistrates of every description. To them 
it particularly belongs to guard themselves against 
those beastly habits, which, while they sap the 
foundation of health, debilitate as well as vitiate the 
mind. Not only the drunken man ; not only the 
man while he is actually in drink, is incapable of 
fulfilling any one of the duties belonging to the 
Magistrate ; but he is rendered, by an indulgence 
in this crime, incapable at all times ; at every hour 
of his life. By habitual drunkenness he loses the 
power of memory, of reflecting, of reasoning, of 
discussing, and of drawing just conclusions. He 
becomes the slave, not only of his passions ; for 



KINGS, PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. 27 

from that slavery he might enjoy occasional re- 
lease ; but the slave of stupidity and debility. His 
temper becomes soured. He is subject to incessant 
irritation. Accidental minutes must be sought for 
speaking to him. All becomes matter of uncertain- 
ty or of mere chance, when dependent upon his 
will or his co-operation. 

Is it possible to imagine a being more con- 
temptible, and at the same time more hateful than 
this ? Well, therefore, may the inspired writer ex- 
claim, *' Woe to thee, O land, when thy King is a 
child, and when thy Princes eat, not for strength 
but for drunkenness !" Is it not enough to fill the 
heart with indignation, when we behold Kings or 
chief Magistrates, under whatever name, answer- 
ing to the description above given 1 Is it not enough 
to excite even rage in the just mind to hear men 
addicted to such vices addressed with the appella- 
tion of Majesty, and to hear them called most ex- 
cellent, and their persons called sacred, when it is 
notorious to the world that they are distinguished 
from other men more by their vices than by any ex 
cellent quality ; and that, by their chief characteris- 
tic, they are brought to a level with the brute 1 

It is said of good Kings, in the East, that, of so 
much importance do they consider serenity of mind 
to a due discharge of their Kingly functions, that 
they rise early, and, even before they e*it or drink, 
apply themselves to the consideration of the matters 
of most importance that are submitted to them. It 
is well known that eating, though you drink only 
water with your food, and though necessary to 
the sustenance of the body, is, for a time, at least, 
a load upon the mind. There are few men who 
do not well know from experience, that, in the 
morning, and fasting, the mind is always clearest, 



28 SIN OF DRUNKENNESS, IN 

more strong than at other times and better capable 
of reasoning correctly. It seems, then, to be no 
more than the bounden duty of Kings and chief 
Magistrates to hav^ recourse to early rising, to fast- 
ing for a while, till the most important duties of the 
day are discharged ; and, if this be the case, what 
ought to be the decision as to those, who not only 
neglect these means of insuring the utmost degree 
of serenity of mind, and of vigour of intellect ; but 
who on the contrary, use the ample means drawn 
from the sweat of the people committed to their 
charge, for the purpose of indulging in drowsiness, 
sluggishness, effeminacy, gluttony and drunkenness? 
To Kings and chief Magistrates are given all the 
means of enjoying ease and tranquillity. They pos- 
sess innumerable advantages over other men. They 
have no cares for themselves or for their progeny. 
Lands, houses, equipages ; every thing, which other 
men seek to possess, is put into their possession 
without the smallest degree of trouble to themselves. 
Their wants and wishes are all anticipated. They 
are armed with author it^^ to curb the disobedient, 
and are furnished with treasures for the doing of 
acts of grace and favour. They are the fountain 
of honours ; and there are laws to give special pro- 
tection to their persons. In return for all these, do 
they owe nothing to the community ? Can they 
ever do enough to discharge the debt of obligation, 
until they have done every good which they are ca- 
pable of doing ? At the least, are they not bound to 
abstain from wilfully doing evil ; are they not bound 
to abstain from voluntarily rendering themselves 
.unqualified for the discharging of their bounden 
duties ? The Magistrate, says the Scripture, shall 
be a terror to evil doers, and a reward to those who 
do well ; but in the debauched, in the drowsy, in the 



KINGS, PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. 29 

effeminate Magistrate : in him who is a child in 
mind and a giant in profligacy ; in the unfeeling 
drunkard and glutton, who may unhappily be 
clothed with regal authority, what do we see but a 
rewarder of evil doers and a terror to those who do 
well? 

But, it is not to this vice, when it is found in 
Kings, that evil consequences exclusively belong. 
If it w^ere possible to suppose any thing more odious 
than a drunkard with a sceptre in his hand, it would 
assuredly be a drunkard in clerical robes. That 
priests should be sober; that they should abstain 
from all excess, whether in eating or drinking, is 
so manifest ; this is so clearly their duty ; that there 
seems to require neither the authority of Scripture 
nor the weight of argument to uphold or enforce it. 
St. Paul to Titus, ch. i. ver. 7, and 8, says that a 
Bishop mui^t be " sober and not given to wineP 
The same is repeated in ch. iii. of the Epistle to 
Timothy. In this last mentioned chapter the apos- 
tle takes care to urjnre the necessity of sobriety in the 
case of tencbers in general; and, indeed, though the 
first teachers wei^e sent forth under numerous in- 
junctions as to their own behaviour, that of being 
sober constantlv bnds a place in the comniands laid 
upon them, '/'hey were told to preach the gospel ; 
to be stedtast in the faith; but they were told with 
not less earnestness to abstain from pride, from va- 
nity, from effeminacy, from filthy lucre ; from every 
thmg calculated to bring, by their evil example, re- 
proach upon their calling : but more particularly 
were they urged to be temperate, to be sober, to ab- 
stain from gluttony and drunkenness. 

Indeed, if we duly consider the matter, we shall 
find that the Priest, next after the King, at least, is 
in duty bound to abstain from excesses of every de- 
3* 



30 SIN OF DRUNKENNESS, IN 

scription, and particularly those under contempla- 
tion at present. For, of what avail is the preach- 
ing, if the example of the Priest give the lie to his 
precepts 1 Can it be believed that the hearers wi.i 
be deterred from indulging in drunkenness, when 
the sermon comes from the lips of a man whom they 
know to be a drunkard ? It will not be contended, 
especially by Priests themselves, that the flock do 
not regard the pastor as a person of understanding 
superior to their own ; because to contend for the 
affirmative of that proposition, would be to declare 
the functions of the Priest to be useless. Of what 
avail, then, can the precept be, if contradicted by the 
example? We are told sometimes, that we are to 
attend to what the Priest says, and not to what he 
does ; for that he merely tells us what is the will 
of God. But the hollowness of this will appear in 
a moment ; for if the Priest tell us that we endan- 
ger our souls by getting drunk ; if he call upon us, 
in the words of St. Paul to the Corinthians, (1 Cor. 
ch. V. ver. 9.) not even to sit down at table vnth 
drunkards ; if he assure us, in the words of the same 
apostle, in ch. vi. ver. 10, of the same book, that 
drunkards shall not inherit the Kingdom of Hea- 
ven ; and if we know that he himself is a drunkard, 
and that his " God is his belly ;" if we know this, 
must we not conclude, that, at bottom, there is not 
so much sin and not so much danger as his words 
would have us believe? Him we regard as our 
superior in point of understanding ; and can we pos- 
sibly believe that, while he is warning us so earnest- 
ly against the danger of not inheriting the Kingdom 
of Heaven he himself is wholly insensible to that 
danger ? 

The truth is, that, in all such cases, we must come 
to one of two conclusions : first, that the Priest lias 



KINGS, PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. 31 

less understanding than ourselves ; or, second, that 
he is a hypocrite, a deceiver, an impostor, who holds 
up the Scripture, as a terror to us, while he has no 
belief in it himself 

The first quality, therefore, in a Priest is that of 
exemplary life. Without this his preaching is a 
great deal worse than vain ; for it tends directly to 
shake all faith in the system of religion which he 
is teaching. He may,'as long as he pleases, tell us, 
that, to be good Christians, we must be humble, 
meek, merciful and charitable ; but, if he himself be 
haughty, insolent, hard-hearted, and cruel, the ne- 
cessary conclusion in our minds, is, that he is either 
an impostor or an infidel ; and, as none of his bad 
actions are more likely to meet our ears than his 
drunkenness and his gluttony ; so in none of them 
is there so great a cause of scandal to religion, and 
of injury to the morals of the people. If it is be- 
coming in all men, whether as neighbours, whether 
as masters, or parents, to look well to the effects of 
their example, is it not becoming in a Priest to be 
uncommonly scrupulous on this score ? Flis obliga- 
tions to the community are in magnitude less than 
those of Kings only. He is amply provided witi^ 
all the necessaries, and all the comforts of life : he 
has these even to superabundance at the expense of 
the labour of other men. The law gives him pe- 
culiar privileges. It exempts him from numerous 
duties, to which other men are liable ; and especially 
from the great and perilous duty of defending his 
country in arms. He is the favoured, the indulged, 
the pampered child of the community; and the rea- 
son is, that he should have no excuse for falling into 
temptation. Such a man surely owes something 
to the community on the score simply of gratitude ; 



32 SIN OF DRUNKENNESS, IN 

and yet if his preaching be not backed by his ex- 
ample, instead of a good he is an evil in society. 

The Priest has, too, contracted certain positive 
obligations with the community. Fie has declared, 
at his entering upon his office that he believed him- 
self to be " called thereunto, according to the will 
of Jesus Christ.''^ He has promised that he v^ill be 
** diligent in the discharge of his duties, laying aside 
the study of the vi^orld and the flesh.'' He has pro- 
mised, moreover, to make himself a " wholesome ex- 
ample and pattern to the flock of Christ :" and these 
he has sealed by taking the sacrament. 

Now, then, with these solemn engagements in 
his recollection ; and knowing that he is forbidden 
even to sit at table with drunkards, and being assur- 
ed that drunkards shall not inherit the Kingdom of 
Heaven, what must the Priest be, who is himself a 
drunkard ; who is himself given to much wine, and 
who, while he is running over the service, is in 
haste only to get at the feast and the bottle ? What 
are we to think of a Priest of this description ? How 
are we to find terms wherein to apply to him a due 
portion of our reprobation % But if we abstain from 
censure, w^e may surely ask where can be the utility 
of such a Priest ; and how such a Priest can be a 
bond of union and a holder together of the flock of 
Christ % 

The fact is, that all the dissensions in the Chris- 
tian Church ; all the breakings ofl" into sects ; and 
all the consequent divisions in communities, and en- 
mities in neighbourhoods and families arising from 
this cause ; that all these have arisen from the negli- 
gence, the listlessness, the laziness, the various de- 
baucheries, of the Priesthood; and especially from 
their drunkenness and gluttony. Their sensualities 
pf another description have been common enough. 



' KINGS, PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. 33 

Greediness and cruelty have not unfreqiiently been 
prominent features in their character ; but gluttony 
and drunkenness, and especially the latter, are not 
easily disguised from the eyes of the world ; and 
have, therefore, had a more powerful effect than 
some other vices in alienating the flock from the 
pastor. 

The mass of mankind are the creatures of habit ; 
they generally follow in the track of their fathers ; 
and to shake things long established is, therefore, 
difficult. Yet, the Christian world has been con- 
tinually experiencing revolutions occasioned by the 
misconduct of the Priests. The law clothes the 
Priest with every thing calculated to excite rever- 
ence ; but to hear precepts of sobriety from the lips 
of a well known drunkard ; or precepts of fasting 
and abstinence from a lump of mortality weazing 
and choaking with fat ; these are too much for com- 
mon sense to endure : they overcome the powers of 
habit and the injunctions of law. The flock is dis- 
gusted. It becomes infidel, or it quits the Pastor ; 
and this is the natural progress of things, which, in 
their result, if they do not justify the community, 
condemn the Priest. 

If unbelief prevail, therefore, let it be ascribed to 
its true cause. If divisions take place amongst 
Christians ; if sects arise, and feuds and deadly 
animosities succeed, let the Priesthood take the 
blame to themselves. Laws may be made, formu- 
las may be promulgated ; penalties may be attached 
to defection or, non-conformity; but in the end, 
reason, justice, manifest right, are too strong for 
them all. Men will not believe him. to be a saint 
who lives the life of a sinner. " To make others 
weep," says the critic, " the poet must weep him- 
self;" and, certainly, to make others believe in the 



34 SIN OF DRUNKENNESS, IN 

soundness of our teaching", we must ourselves prac- 
tice what we teach. Did it ever happen, that, in 
order to induce his soldiers to enter the breach, the 
commander himself turned his back and ran away 1 
To persuade men to labour, do we ever ourselves 
give striking proofs of our own laziness ? To induce 
our children to abstain from gaming and to give 
them a horror of that vice, do w^e ourselves take 
them to the gaming table to see us place our for- 
tunes upon the hazard of the die? Who, then, is 
to expect that a gluttonous and a drunken Parson 
will have a temperate and sober congregation ; and, 
how necessary is it then, that the law-giver and the 
magistrate, in every community, take care that no 
protection, and especially that no grace or favour, 
be given to a Ministry whose lives are a continual 
example of, and a continual encouragement to, an 
indulgence in this too prevalent, and most perni- 
cious vice ! 

After all, however, were a nation so unhappy: 
were it afflicted with those chosen curses, an effemi- 
nate, debauched and profligate King, and a Priest- 
hood addicted to gluttony and drunkenness; after 
all, notwithstanding these vicious examples, the peo- 
ple have themselves to perform their duty. Every 
man has conscience to guide him, and in these 
dsLjs, none is deprived of access to the commands 
of God himself Kings, Magistrates, Priests may 
set evil example ; but, after all, man has an account 
to settle with his Maker; and in that account evil 
example, from whatever quarter it may have come, 
can never be a justification of misconduct. 

The Bible, from one end to the other, enjoins 
temperance and sobriety. Solomon, in Prov. ch. 
xxiii. ver. 31., says, that the "drunkard and the 
glutton shall come to poverty ;" and in ver. 29 and 



KINGS, PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. 35 

30 of the same chapter he asks, " Who hath woe ? 
Who hath sorrow ? Who hath contentions'? Who 
bath babbling- ? Who hath wounds without cause ? 
Who hath redness of eyes?" The answer is, 
*' they that tarry long at the wine, they that go to 
seek mixed wineP 

Never was a truer picture than this. Here are 
the effects and here is the cause. The drunkard, 
he who delights in drink, passes upon himself the 
sentence of poverty, and of anpitied poverty, too- 
he suffers all its pains and penalties without receiv- 
ing and without meriting compassion ; because he 
has sinned, as was before observed, against nature 
as well as against reason and the word of God. 
" Drowsiness,''^ says Solomon, " shall clothe a man 
with rags." And of all the drowsiness and laziness 
that is witnessed in the world nine-tenths arise from 
an inordinate indulgence in drink. When once 
this vice has taken fast hold of a man, farewell in- 
dustry, farewell emulation, farewell attention to 
things worthy of attention, farewell the love of vir- 
tuous society, farewell decency of manners, and fare- 
well, too, even an attention to person : every thing 
is sunk by this predominating and brutal appetite. 

In how many instances do we see men who have 
begun life with the brightest of prospects before 
them, and who close it without one ray of comfort 
or consolation, after having wasted their time in 
debauchery and sloth, and dragged down many 
innocent persons from prosperity to misery ! Young 
men with good fortunes, good* talents, good tern* 
pers, good hearts, and sound constitutions, only by 
being drawn into the vortex of the drunkard, hav© 
become, by degrees, the most despicable and most 
loathsome of mankind. At first the thing is not so 
visible j but in the end it is complete in its effects. 



36 SIN OF DRUNKENNESS, IN 

The " redness of eyes" becomes the outward and 
visible sign of the commencement of ruin ; and, at 
last, fortune and family, friends, parents, wife and 
children ; all are sacrificed, if necessary, to this 
raging and ungovernable vice. This vice creates 
more unhappiness in families ; is the cause of more 
strife between man and wife ; is the cause of more 
of those separations, which disgrace the married 
parties themselves, which send the children forth 
into the world' humbled and tarnished, and rather 
than be the cause of which, a father ought to be ready 
to suffer, if possible, ten thousand deaths : of these 
fatal effects druiikenness in the husband is more fre- 
quently the cause than all other causes put together. 

In the house of a drunkard there is no happiness 
for any one. All is uncertainty and anxiety. He 
is not the same man for any one day at a time. 
No one knows any thing of his out-goings or of 
his in-comings. When he will rise or when 
lay down to rest is wholly a matter of chance. 
Whether he will be laughing or sullen at his re- 
turn to his house no one can tell. At some times 
he is one man, at other times another. His time 
is chiefly divided between raving and melancholy. 
Well might the Apostle warn his Disciples not to 
sit down at table with drunkards ; for, leaving the 
sin of drunkenness itself out of the question, what 
is so intolerable as the babble of a drunken man ! 
What so uncertain as the consequences of commu- 
nication with him ! This minute he shakes you 
by the hand ; the next he seeks your life ; and the 
only recompense you receive for the injuries he 
inflicts, is, an acknowledgment, that, at the time of 
committing the injury, he had voluntarily put him- 
self upon a level with the brute. 

Of all the afflictions in this v^orld, there is, per- 



KINGS, PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. 37 

kips, none that exceeds that of having a drunken 
husband ; next to which comes that of having* a 
drunken son. From the very earliest times this 
vice was held in the greatest abhorrence and marked 
out for the severest punishment. Moses, in laying 
down laws for the Israelites, took care to invest 
parents and judges with power to punish a crime, 
which, if suffered to go unpunished, he foresaw 
must be productive of the most injurious conse- 
quences to the community of which he was the 
law-giver. In the xxist chap. Deuteronomy, he 
commands the parents of a stubborn and rebellious 
son to bring him before the elders : " and they shall 
say unto the elders of his city. This our son will 
not obey our voice ; he is a glutton and a drunk- 
ard. And all the men of his city shall stone him 
with stones that he die : so shalt thou put evil away 
fiom among you ; and all Israel shall hear, and 
fear." Now, severe as this punishment was, who 
shall say, when we take into view the numerous 
and terrible consequences of the vice, and the total 
absence of all temptation to the commission of it; 
who shall say, when these things are considered 
that this punishment was too severe? Before we 
pronounce this judgment, let us look at the aged 
father and mother, at brethren and sisters, all plung- 
ed into misery by the drunkenness and consequent 
squandering of one stubborn, profligate and brutal 
member of the family. Let us only consider the 
number of unfortunate mothers, who, in their wi- 
dowhood, have a son to whom they ought to look 
for consolation and support, rendered doubly mi- 
serable by that son ; and, at last brought to absolute 
beggary by his drunkenness, drowsiness and squan- 
dering. Let us look at a mother thus situated ; 
let us see her for years wearing herself with anx* 
4 



38 SIN OF DRUNKENNESS, IS 

iety, humouring him, indulging him, apologizing 
for him ; and at last, even when brought by him to 
want bread to put in her mouth, feeling not for her- 
self but for him. We must look at a case like 
this; a case, unhappily, but too frequent in this 
day ; we must look at a case like this ; we must 
look at the crimes of such a son ; at his ingrati- 
tude, his cruelty, at that hard-heartedness which 
has grown out of the wilful indulgence of his appe- 
tites ; and we must consider that this indulgence 
has been in defiance of reason and of nature, before 
we pronounce that the punishment allotted by the 
law of Moses was more than commensurate to the 
magnitude of the crime. 

However, we must not dismiss this subject with- 
out recollecting, that, even for such a son, there may, 
in some cases, be an apology found ; not, indeed in 
the example of a King or in that of Priests, but in 
the example or in the negligence o[ parents them- 
selves ; for these have duties to perform with regard 
to their children, and duties, too, which justice, 
which good morals, and which religion imperiously 
demand at their hands. 

They are not at liberty to say, that their children 
are theirs ; and that, as in cases of other animals, 
they are to do what they please with them, and to 
leave undone towards them that which they please. 
They have no right to give life to beings, of whom 
they grudge to take charge, and towards whom they 
are not ready to act with as much zeal and tender- . 
ness as towards their own persons. If the life and 
happiness of a child (the child being without of- 
fence) be not as dear to the parent as the parent's 
own life, that parent is deficient in parental affec- 
tion, and can hardly expect an affectionate and 
dutiful child. 



KINGSj PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. 39 

In this respect, however, let us hope that few 
parents are deficient; but, there is something be- 
sides parental afiection due from a parent towards 
a child, the parent has to act as well as to feel. He 
is to consider that which is best to be done; that 
which is the best course to pursue, in order to pro- 
vide, not only for the existence and health. of his 
child, but also for his future welfare, and in welfare 
is included his good moral conduct. It is very 
certain that children are, in general, prone to fol- 
low, and with great exactness, the example of their 
parents. Where is the father whose sons have not 
told him, one after another, at the age of three 
years old, that they shall be big men like him ; that 
they shall do this or that like him ? Where is the 
father that has not watched, and been very much 
pleased at their constant attempts to imitate him ? 
and who has not observed their contentions as to 
which was most like him ? 

Now, it is impossible not to see in these things, 
w^iich are notorious to all the world, the clearest 
proof, that, with children, the example of parents 
always is powerful, and may be rendered, in nine 
cases out often, productive of the happiest conse- 
quences to both parents and children. If it be the 
ambition of the son, even from his earliest days, to 
be like and do like the father, how careful ought 
the father to be of all his words and all his actions ! 
Nature may possibly produce a son so untoward 
as to become a drunkard after having been bred up 
by a rober father and in scenes of perfect sobriety : 
but this is a sort of monster in morals, and is to be 
excluded from all the reasonings appertaining to 
the subject, Nothing is truer than the rule of 
SoLOMOM, " train up a child in the way he should 
go ; and when he is old, he will not depart from 



40 SIN OF DRUNKENNESS, IN 

-it." But, in this case, as well as in the case of 
Priest and flock, it is the examjple, and not the pre- 
cept, upon which we ought to rely. By precept 
you may teach your son that drunkenness is sinful 
and leads to misery ; but the precept will have lit- 
tle force when contradicted by your example. You 
may preach, you may warn, you may menace; 
but if you indulge in the bottle yourself, expect not 
a sober son, and complain not if he bring your 
grey hairs with sorrow to the grave. 

Example in this case costs nothing, either in the 
way of money or of personal exertion. It is merely 
an abstaining from that which is in itself unnatural. 
It is recommended also by economy, by a love of 
domestic peace, and by a desire to consult the con- 
venience, and to promote the happiness of a family. 
Drinking and carousing is not productive of cheer- 
fulness ; and it is cheerfulness, and not boisterous 
mirth, that we ought to desire for our inmate. No- 
body is so dull as the day -before drunkard; no 
mansion so gloomy as that which beholds the mor- 
row of a feast. " Nabal's heart was merry within 
him ; for he was very drunken ;" but the next morn- 
ing, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, his heart 
died within him and he became dead as a sto7ie. 
This is the true picture of the two states of the 
drunkard, and well represents the effects of drink- 
ing and carousing in a family. 
^Therefore, even as relating to the management 
and the happiness of a household, an abstinence -^ 
from drinking strong drink, or any thing which 
intoxicates, is a duty. And, when the effect upon 
children is taken into view, how sacred is their 
duty! 

Many are the parents, who, under afflictions oc- 
casioned by a son addicted to drunkenness' ; manv 



KINGS, PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. 41 

are such parents, who, after fruitless attempts at 
reclaiming him, after vain endeavours to disguise 
the cause of their trouble from the world, confess, 
in the bitterness of their sorrow, that it would have 
been better had they followed him to the grave at 
a moment when perhaps they were shedding tears 
of joy at his recovery from some dangerous disease ! 
And, if such parents have well and truly discharged 
their duty towards him, unfeeling indeed must be 
the heart that can refrain from participating in their 
sorrow. But, if his boyish days have been spent 
amidst scenes of drinking ; if the parents have made 
him a hearer of glees and songs in praise of the 
heroes of the bottle : if the decanter have been the 
companion of the daily domestic repasts of his 
youth ; if, by his own parents, his natural appetite 
have thus been perverted ; if, by them, he have 
"been initiated in the school of drinking, their sor- 
rows are the natural consequence and the just pu- 
nishment of their own disregard of duty towards 
him. 

There are few crimes, few offences against mo- 
rals, which do not, in the end, bring their own pu- 
nishment, even in this world. The thief, the robber, 
the murderer, the corrupt legislator, the unjust 
judge, the perjured juror, the tyrant king ; each 
usually receives his due, in one way or another, 
before he is called to commune with the worms. 
But the punishment of the drunkard is not only 
certain to follow the offence, but it follows immedi- 
ately. That which he swallows for what he calls 
his pleasure brings the pain as surely as the night 
brings the morning. Poverty and misery are in 
the train ; a disgraceful and loathsome state of exist- 
ence closes the scene; and when the besotted and 
bloated body is at last committed to the earth, not a 
4* 



42 SIN OF DRUNKENNESS. 

tear, not a sigh is drawn forth even from parents or 
children. It has been deemed subject of deep la- 
mentation when death is unaccompanied with the so- 
licitudes of friends and relations. There is scarcely 
a human being so unfortunate as not to leave some 
one to regret that he is no more. But the drunk- 
ard makes no void in society, except that of a nui- 
sance, the removal of which is calculated to excite 
no other feeling than that of satisfaction. 

Let us remember, therefore, that, while it is the 
duty of Kings and of Priests to abstain from wine 
and from strong drink, it is also a duty which be- 
longs to ourselves ; that if they set an evil example, 
we have reason, nature, and the word of God for 
our guide ; and, that, if we, as neighbours, friends, 
relations, masters or parents, neglect our duty in 
this respect, we merit all the reproach, and all the 
punishment, that are so justly due to drunkard 
Kings and Priests. We are called upon, in this 
case, to do nothing. Abstinence requires no aid to 
accomplish it. Our own will is all that is requi- 
site ; and, if we have not the will to avoid contempt, 
disgrace and misery, we deserve neither relief nor 
compassion. 



FALL OF JUDAS; 



OR, 

GOD'S VENGEANCE AGAINST BRIBERY. 



"Now this man purchased a field with the reward of ini- 
quity ; and, falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, 
and all his bowels gushed out."— Acts, chap. i. ver. 18. 



Bribery is the giving', or the taking of money, 
or some other thing* of value, real or imaginary, as 
an inducement, or reward, to do, or to cause to be 
done, some act which the parties know to be wick- 
ed ; and, while there are few things more detestable 
than this in their nature, there are still fewer which 
have, in the affairs of mankind, effects so exten< 
sively mischievous. Yet, as in the case of drinking 
and gaming, the frequency of the crime renders it 
less generally and strongly reprobated than it ought 
to be ; though, if we duly consider it, either in its 
nature or in its consequences, we shall find that we 
are criminal, not only if we, directly, or indirectly, 
give it our countenance, but if we neglect any means 
within our power to expose it to hatred and to bring 
down upon it some portion, at least, of that ven- 
geance which the Scriptures teach us is its due. 

Bribery must always be a deliberate SiCt, a wilful 
sin, a deed committed against the loudly and dis- 
tinctly expressed admonitions of conscience. Vari- 
ous are the particular motives by which the wretches 
who give bribes are actuated ; but, he who receives 
a bribe is actuated, and always must be actuated by 
the base motive of lucre. Here are, indeed, the 



44 FALL OF JUDAS ) OR, 

tempter and the tempted ; but, so foul is the crime, 
that it is difficult to say, that the former is more 
criminal than the latter. In many cases the tempter 
is by far the most criminal ; the deluder or instiga- 
tor far more wicked than he wfio yields to the 
temptation, because there are many cases, where 
the tempted party is taken by surprise ; taken at a 
moment when he is off his guard : urged by hasty 
passion ; misled by feelings in themselves amiable ; 
deceived by false appearances. In these cases com- 
mon charity finds an excuse for those who yield to 
temptation ; but, he who takes a bribe, does it de- 
liberatel}^ does it with his eyes open ; coolly calcu- 
lates the money's worth of his crime ; makes up 
his mind as to the price of his intended iniquity; 
determines to sell his soul, and carries it to market. 
In such a traffic it is impossible to make a distinc- 
tion betw^een the parties : the wretch who buys is, 
indeed, a^s worthy of detestation as the wretch who 
sells; but, as the latter is worthy of the deepest, the 
former can be worthy of no more ; and, at the hands 
of a God of justice, they must receive the same 
measure of punishment. 

The conduct of the chief Priests, in the case of 
the traitor Judas, was inexpressibly base; but, it 
was not more base than that of Jadas, who, Mke 
many, many others, offered his soul for sale. One 
or the other of the parties must make the offer ; but, 
as to the magnitude of the crime, it signifies little 
which of them it is. To be sure, in this case of 
Iscariot, the circumstances were singularly shock- 
ing. The follower, the professed disciple, one of 
the chosen and honoured twelve, goes to the known 
deadly enemies of his gentle, kind, benevolent, un- 
offending Master, and asks them how much they 
will give him to betray that Master into their hands? 



god's vengeance against bribery. 45 

They offer hini a hrihe of thirty pieces of silver. 
He takes the bribe ; becomes the s'py of these hypo- 
critical pretenders to piety; and the sign, by which 
he points his Master out to the low and hardened 
myrmidons of the persecutors, is a kiss, the token 
of fidelity and affection ! The spy and traitor 
knows, that the death, the ignominious death of his 
innocent and generous Master is to be the conse- 
quence ; but, stil] he coolly perseveres : he has taken 
a hrihe ; and, having been capable of that, remorse 
could find no place in his bosom, But, God's jus- 
tice was not tardy in overtaking him. He pur- 
chased a field with the wages of his perfidy ; and, 
upon that very spot " he fell headlong, and all his 
bowels gushed out ;" a lesson to spies and traitors 
to the end of the world. His accomplices in guilt, 
his employers and payers were divested of their 
power ; and the nation who were so base as to wink 
at the crime, were scattered over the face of the 
earth ; destined to be in every country and to be 
owned by no country ; doomed to be accumulators 
of wealth, and to be, at the same time, the scorn even 
of the beggar. 

But, though this particular act of bribery was so 
completely horrible in all its circumstances, we 
must take care not to suppose, that precisely such 
circumstances, or that any horrible circumstances, 
are absolutely necessary to make the crime of bribe- 
ry detestable and worthy of punishment even equal 
to that of Judas and the Jews. The very act of 
giving, or of taking a bribe, implies an intention m 
the party to do evil; and, though, when the bribe 
be the price of human blood, our very nature calls 
on us for an uncommon portion of horror to be felt 
at the conduct of the criminals; though, when one 
man deliberately gives, and another as deliberately 



46 FALL OF JUDAS ; OR, 

receives, money, or promises, the exchange against 
which is to be the death, or ruin, of some one, the 
love or confidence of whom the bribed wretch is 
known to possess; though, in such a case, our 
loudest and bitterest execrations justly fall on the 
hands of the cool blood-seeking offenders, we must 
not, for a moment, suppose that there are cases, 
where bribery does not demand our detestation and 
abhorrence, any more than we must suppose, that, 
because murder is worthy of death, maiming is 
worthy of no punishment at all. 

The Scripture takes care to warn us against this 
error ; for, it holds up to our detestation bribery of 
every description, -and bribery of no kind more dis- 
tinctly and earnestly than that kind which works 
its way to our neighbour through a circuitous and 
general channel ; and which destroys the peace and 
happiness of the community by corrupting the 
sources of law and of justice. When Samuel be- 
came old, he set his sons to judge, that is to say, to 
be rulers or guides, or chief magistrates to the Is- 
raelites. But (1 Sam. ch. 8, ver. 3.) his sons *'took 
bribes and perverted judgment. "^^ That is to say, 
made partial laws and regulations. Whereupon 
the Israelites demanded a King, in imitation of the 
neighbouring nations. They were remonstrated 
with upon this demand ; Samuel told them of the 
sufferings and degradations that this wQuld bring 
upon them. The answer to that eloquent, beauti- 
ful and affecting appeal which he made to them 
after Saul was made king, clearly shows how 
much they revered him. " Behold," says he, " here 
I am : witness against me before the Lord and be- 
fore his anointed: whose ox have I taken ? or whose 
ass have I taken ? or whom have I defrauded 1 
whom have I oppressed ? or of whose hand have I 



god's vengeance against bribery. 47 

received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith l 
and I will restore it to you. — And, they said, Thou 
hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither 
hast thou taken aught of any man's hand.'' 1 Sam. 
ch. xii. ver. 3, and 4. 

Nevertheless, though they thought as highly of 
his wisdom as they did of that rare integrity, which 
had made him give up his own corrupt sons, they 
persisted in demanding a king, even after he had 
placed before their, eyes the divers acts of despotism 
which a king would assuredly commit. They knew 
what was to befall them ; but, even despotism, with 
all its burdens, all its arrogance and all its inso- 
lence, they welcomed as a means of freeing them 
from that tantalizing curse ; the oppression of partial 
laws and a partial administration of public afl^iirs : 
a mockery of freedom and of justice, carried on 
through the corrupt influence of bribes, taken by 
hypocrites clothed in authority. 

Bribery is every where, in Holy Writ, marked 
down amongst the most hateful of public offences. 
Amos, (ch. V. ver. 10, 11, 12, and 13) w^ell describes 
the state of things* where bribery prevails. " They 
hate him that rebuketh m the gate, and they abhor 
him that speaketh uprightly. Forasmuch, there- 
fore, as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take 
from him burdens of wheat ; ye have built houses 
of hewn stone, but ye shall not dw^ell in them ; ye 
have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not 
drink wine of them. For I know your manifold 
transgressions and your mighty sins; they afflict 
the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the 
poor in the gate from their right. Therefore, the 
prudent shall keep silence in that time ; for it is an 
evil time." 

Thus it ever is : a state of things in which bribe- 



48 FA1.L OF JUl)AS; OR, 

ry prevails, necessarily consists, in part, of cruel 
oppression, and especially on the weak, or defence- 
less, or as here denominated, the foor. A necessa- 
ry consequence, danger of complaining of such op- 
pression ; and, hence the prophet observes, that, in 
such a state of things, the prudent will he silent : 
which may well be called the last stage of human 
endurance and degradation ; for, to suffer, however 
acutely, is a trifle, compared with the necessity of 
smothering one's groans; a species of torture which 
has never been put in practice, except in a state of 
things where bribery was the pivot of power. 

*' Gather not,l' says David, (Psalm, xxvi. ver. 8 
and 9) " my soul with sinners, nor my life with 
bloody men, in whose hands is mischief, and their 
right hand is full of bribes P Thus it ever is: the 
man who can be guilty of bribery, is capable of any 
act of wickedness. Blood may, in some cases, not 
be necessary to effect his designs ; but the man, 
who will either give or take a bribe is capable of 
shedding innocent blood rather than not effect his 
purposes. His heart must be corrupt in the first, 
and it must have become pgr/ec^Zj/ callous, before he 
can, to the face of another man, give or take, a bribe. 
Isaiah adds his authority to that of David. He 
describes the good man thus : " He that speaketh 
uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, 
that shaketh his hands from the holding of bribes, 
and that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood; 
he shall dwell on high ; his place of defence shall 
be the munitions of rocks." 

In this beautiful passage, too, we find oppression 
and bloody-mindedness associated with bribery; and, 
it really does seem, that they are inseparable, and 
that, whiie oppression and cruelty cannot be carried 
to any great extent withoat bribery, this last can 



god's vengeance against bribery. 49 

never be practised extensively vvrithout producing 
the two former. 

Hateful, therefore, as the thing is in itself, it be- 
comes still more hateful when we take its conse- 
quences into view. When we reflect on the state 
of depravity, at which men must have arrived, be- 
fore they can open to each other a transaction, the 
very name of which acknowledges infamy in the 
actors, how are we to refrain from abhorring the 
wretch guilty of the offence ? In other crimes, ac- 
complices fall gradually into each other's views ; 
they undertake, and only undertake; and are in- 
volved in the sin frequently without perceiving the 
extent. But, in the case of bribery, the two parties 
meet; they negociate, looking each other in the 
face by the light of God's sun ; and they coolly 
make and ratify a hargain, which stamps villain 
on the front of both. Bribery, nine tiraes out of 
ten, includes a breach oi trust, or confidence : it is 
an act of perfidy, bought on the one side and sold 
on the other ; and that, too with the clear fore- 
knowledge of its producing, first or last, wrong to 
some part or other of the rest of mankind. But, 
still, we have but an imperfect idea of its wicked- 
ness till we come to contemplate its consequences ; 
till we consider the evils it brings in its train ; the 
oppressions, the acts of cruelty, the ruin, the misery, 
the destruction of individuals, the disgrace and over- 
throw of nations, the rivers of human blood, which, 
through its means, are poured out on the sacrilegious 
altar of ambition and avarice. Luxury and effemi- 
nacy bring their evils; superstition has also its 
scourge in its hand ; pride, folly, indolence, igno- 
rance and insolence, have their chastisements for 
the nation that indulges in them ; but, let bribery 
once take root : let its corrupting fibres once get 
5 



50 FALL OF JUDAS ; OR, 

fast hold ; let its branches spread abroad, and all 
becomes poison and rottenness : the nation is doomed 
to suifer long and much ; and even half-destruction 
becomes a blessing, if it rid a people of the degra- 
ding and intolerable curse. 

Let us not, however, be content with this rather 
general view of the matter, and seem to consider it 
as a thing, with regard to which we ourselves have 
nothing to do. Let us rather, every man, look 
well into his own conduct ; and, judging impartial- 
ly, settle the important point ; whether we are in 
anywise blameable as to this matter. For, nations 
are composed of individuals: if no individual were 
corrupt, all would be sound. Bribery requires two 
parties to give it its consummation; and, if there 
were none to take, there could be none to give, 
bribes ; and, hence it has been held by some, that 
where corruption of this kind prevails, the greater 
part of the fault lies w4th those who take bribes. 
In truth, however, there is no difference at all in 
the two. Both commit the act for their own selfish 
purposes ; and neither is so ignorant as not to know, 
that the act is unjust and infamous. 
< It is a fatal error, if, in such a case, there can be 
error, to suppose, that because we do nothing more 
than take the probably pitiful bribe ; because we 
stop there ; because we cannot clearly trace it to all 
its consequences, we are, therefore, harmless, and 
that the sin of the consequences rests only on the 
head of those who have an immediate hand in pro- 
ducing those consequences. We know the act to 
be wicked ; we know that the bribe is given for 
the purpose of having the power to do that which m 
wrong ; for the purpose of getting at a something, 
which, in the end, must naturally be injurious to 
our neighbour, or our country, which is only an- 



god's vengeance against bribery. 51 

other word to express our neighbour. We know 
this, and there needs nothing more to deter us from 
taking a bribe. Power, no matter of what descrip- 
tion, acquired by bribery, must have evil for its ob- 
ject ; and, therefore, in the taking of a bribe, and 
in the aiding and abetting any one in the acquisi- 
tion of power in exchange for such bribe, we make 
ourselves answerable, in the eye of reason and of 
religion, foi* all that he may perpetrate in conse- 
quence of being possessed of that power. Evil 
must necessarily arise out of evil. The "corrupt 
tree must brings forth evil fruit ;" and a share of 
the fruit falls to every one, who, in any manner or 
degree, assists in planting or fostering the tree. 

According with these principles are the awful 
denunciations of God, whose word pronounces con- 
demnation more especially on the takers of bribes. 
Indeed the whole herd of givers and takers are 
sometimes spoken of and put into one mass of hor- 
rible malefactors ; but, at any rate, no distinction is 
made in favour of takers. In Job, ch. xv. vcr. 34. 
** The congregation' of hypocrites shall be desolate, 
and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery^* 
Now, with men (if there really be such) who are 
blasphemers, with men who disbelieve the Scrip- 
iures ; with men loho ridicule revelation ; with 
such, this denunciation may be treated lightly. 
But, will any of those who call the Bible the word 
of God, despise this denunciation ; will they say, 
that a bribe may, in certain cases, be taken, without 
incurring the vengeance of God ? Such men there 
may possibly be ; it is possible, that there are men 
who affect to look upon themselves as the elect, as 
endued with particular grace, as under the imme- 
diate guidance of the holy spirit, and who boast of 
a direct communication with heaven. It is possi- 



52 FALL OF JUDAS ; OR, 

ble, that there may be men, pretending to all these 
religious advantages, and who, at the same time, 
not only think lightly of bribery, but actually give 
and take bribes; and, if there really be such men, 
all that one can say is, that, to the most detestable 
of wickedness in practice, they join, in professions, 
the most loathsome hypocrisy. Such men are not 
only a scandal to religion, but a dishonour to human 
nature, and their erect attitude of body is a disgrace 
to the human form. There are monsters of the 
visionary as well as of the substantial creation ; 
but, what monster ever existed in either equal to 
the inward man swoln with the grace of God and 
the outward man fingering a bribe ? 

It is worthy of remark, that, in almor.t every 
instance where bribery is mentioned in the Scrip- 
tures, hypocrisy also finds a place. They are, in- 
deed, constant associates. They are twin sisters. 
The hypocrite in religion will stick at nothing that 
is base, or cruel ; and the baseness seems always 
the sweeter to him if seasoned with cruelty. There- 
fore, to bribe, or be bribed, is in the regular course 
of one who is a hypocrite in religion ; while he 
who is capable of bribery is capable of any act of dis- 
simulation, and a false pretence of religion is neces- 
sary to him as a disguise. People of this description 
should have the hatred and the hostility of all the 
sound part of mankind. They are amongst the 
very greatest enemies of the human race. One of 
them is the cause o^ more mischief in the world 
than fifty bands of thieves ; for the hypocritical 
briber or bribed is a scourge that reaches whole 
nations: compared to an intercourse with him, the 
robbers' den is a school of honesty and the brothel 
a seminary of purity. Even the open, the daring, 
the shameless briber is less detestable than he who 



assumes the garb of piety, as the bravo, whose 
trade is pourtrayed on his visage, is less detestable 
than the cool, sly, placid-looking, simpering killer 
who wins from the thoughtless the character of 
mildness, while his whole soul is bent on blood ; 
who does not agitate and waste himself by threats 
and denunciations : who employs no sounds to 
frighten off his victim ; who, reversing the remark 
of the poet, " does not speo.k daggers, but uses them." 
Sin, in all cases, endeavours to disguise itself, 
Satan is too crafty to present the wages of perdition 
in its naked form. A bribe, like poison, is frequent- 
ly tendered, and as frequently asked for, under 
shapes that are calculated to disguise its real cha- 
racter from the eyes of common beholders. But, 
any benefit, profit, gain, advantage, or a promise to 
bestow any of these, no matter of what kind, in 
exchange for an evil act, no matter of what descrip- 
tion, to be committed by another, is, to all intents 
and purposes, a bribe. In the case of Judas it was 
money, counted down: it was the thirty pieces of 
silver given into the spy and traitor's hand ; but, 
if the Chief Priest had obtained the same act from 
him by a promise of providing for him, or for his 
children or relations, the sin would not have been 
less detestable or less deadly. The act would still 
have been the same, and the same Avould have been 
the motive. Indeed, this latter mode of bribing is 
the most dangerous, because less open and less 
liable to be detected, checked and punished, and 
more likely to creep on, till, by degrees, it has 
infected the whole community. The wretches who 
take money -bribes, as well as those who give them, 
are known and detested. They take their place in 
the ranks of infamy. They, like common prosti- 
tutes and common vagrants, make no disguise of 



54 FALL OF JUDAS ; OR, 

their practices. They are marked out as wretches 
to be shunned. Like common prostitutes, seeing 
that they are held in abhorrence, they make a jest 
of their infamy. But the crafty, the under-working 
sons of corruption endeavour to disguise, and but 
too often succeed in disguising, their real character 
and conduct from the eye of the world. They 
thrive by bribery, and the world does not perceive 
the cause of their thriving. They do not give and 
receive the bribe in money : the payment of the 
wages of perfidy is not direct and visible ; but the 
payment comes, in the end, and the bribery is as 
complete in its character as that of Iscariot himself 
It is a poor excuse for a man to say, that he does 
not offend the laws, in a case like this. How many 
mjuries can men commit against their neighbours, 
and yet keep within the verge of any laws that man 
can devise ! If I, having the power to do an act 
to serve my neighbour, or my country, (for they are 
the same,)/<^i/ to do that act, in consequence of any 
expectation or h^pe, or even wish, that some benefit 
will arise to me from this failure in my duty, I am 
my own briber, my motive is corrupt, and I am not 
entitled to exemption from the vengeance due to 
bribery. My conduct tends, and it has -in view, to 
benefit myself at the expense of my neighbour. 
Oppression of my neighbour is the natural, and 
even the known consequence of my conduct; and, 
throughout the Scriptures we find bribery and 
oppression inseparable associates. "Whom have 
I oppressed! From whose hand have I taken «. 
bribed says the righteous Samuel. *' The upright 
man," says Isaiah, " despiseth the gain of oppres- 
sions, he shaketh his hands from the holding of 
bribes^ Amos says, that the bribers *' affiict the 
justj and turn aside the poor in the gate from their 



god's vengeance against bribery. 55 

rightV David joins briber^/ and cruelty together 
as necessary companions. And thus it certainly is, 
take the world throughout. Where there is bribery, 
there you will find oppression ; and the extent of 
the latter is invariably in due proportion to the 
extent of the former. Reason tells us, that it must 
be thus ; for, who is to pay the wages of iniquity ? 
Who is to remunerate the bribed for his perfidy ? 
Who is to pay the price of his soul ? Not the 
bribers ; for, in that case, he could not gain by the 
transaction. He must throw the burden of j)ay' 
ment on - somebody else. He does, indeed, drive 
the bargain, make the purchase of the corrupt soul, 
advance the money or make the promise ; but, it is 
from somebody else that the payment is finally to 
come : the means to compensate the mercenary 
seller is to come out of the fruit of the sweat of other 
me'ifis brows. The crafty and greedy wretch, who ex- 
pends a pound in bribery, does it with a view of 
gaining a thousand fold ; and, to effect this, oppress 
somebody he necessarily must. Indeed, nine times 
out of ten, a bribe is neither more nor less than the 
purchase money of the power to oppress. 

When, therefore, we behold men, selling, under 
any shape whatever, this power, we are bound to 
hold them in abhorrence, to hold no intercourse 
with them ; to mark them out as reprobate, and to 
do all that in us lies to impede their course. Our 
duty towards God demands, that we shun such 
wretches as we would flee from the plague; and 
our duty towards our neighbour demands, that we 
use our utmost endeavours to detect them and brand 
them with infamy. Their gain is the loss of good 
men : their prosperity spreads misery over the land; 
their enjoyment is a nation's curse. 

Attd, what has the taker of a bribe to offer in 



56 FALL OF JUDAS ; OR, 

the way of excuse for his conduct? What justifica* 
tion, what apology has%e to ofier for receiving the 
wages of iniquity ; for selling to another the "power 
to oppress his neighbours ? What subterfuge has 
Satan suggested to him wherewith to quiet his con- 
science, and make him believe, that God's ven- 
geance will not overtake him, though so distinctly 
and emphatically pronounced upon his guilty head. 
Where can he find a refuge from that shame which 
pursues him like his shadow? How does he find 
the assurance to hold up his head and to walk erect 
in the presence of other men ? 

After having in vain sought for loop holes in 
religion and morality; after having exhausted all 
the resources of chicanery, the wretch guilty of 
bribery resorts to the old, stale, hacknied excuse, 
that others do the same! What, then, and, because 
others rob and murder, will you rob and murder? 
For, these you might do with a conscience not 
more foul than that which permits you to bribe and 
be bribed. Others? who are those others? ' They 
are men as well as you, and no more; and doubt- 
less, they appeal to your example, as you to do to 
theirs; and thus whole crowds of thieves and man- 
slayers might find a justification in the fact that 
each has followed the example of all the rest. The 
augmentation of the number of bribers or of bribed 
does by no means diminish the guilt and infamy of 
the individuals. If the briber were to collect and 
range the base takers of bribes into companies and 
regiments ; were to draw them up in rank and file, 
two deep or ten deep ; were to go from rank to 
rank and from file to file with his muster-roll and his 
purse in hand; were to dole out to every m dividual 
the sum agreed upon as the price of his corruption; 
would the portion of infamy appertaining to each 



god's vengeance against bribery. 57 

of the soul -selling band be diminished by his being 
thus ranged and thus paid amongst numerous 
associates? Would not all his own share of shame 
and sin still adhere to him as firmly as it would 
were he paid in a corner, or if the bribe found its 
way into his hand through a hole in the wall, or 
from the hand of a briber, dressed in masquerade 
or hidden behind a curtain? 

And, as to bribers, do they, who have given the 
price of power to oppress, injure, rob, insult, domi- 
neer over their neighbours; do they shift off any 
part of their crime by congregating; by getting 
together in a crowd ? On the contrary, their power 
of oppressing and robbing being augmented by 
collecting the individual portions of it into a mass, a 
phalanx of bribers is of a character still more de- 
testable, if possible, than that of an individual 
briber. As long, indeed, as they were in divan; 
as far as would relate to their intercommunication, 
they might keep each other in countenance, like 
the members of a banditti or those of a brothel. As 
towards each other they would be guilty of no 
wrong-doing. But, as towards the rest of man- 
kind ; as towards the laws and ordinances of God, 
the guilt of each individual would remain to him 
for his possession, though none of his associates 
were to think the worse of him for it, and though 
the crime itself were as notorious as the sun at 
noon day. 

In vain does the wretch, guilty of bribery, seek 
shelter from infamy in the example of ages. Mur- 
derers seek such shelter in vain. That there have 
alvv'-ays been bribers in the world we know from 
history ; but, we also know, that this is no justifica- 
tion of the briber, or bribe-taker of the present day. 
It needs must be, says St. Paul, thpt offences will 



§8 FALL OF JUDAS ; OR, 

come; but woe be unto him by whom the offence 
cometh. That bribing was in practice in the days 
of Samuel we have on record that cannot err ; but, 
in the book of Job we are told, that ''fire shall 
consume the tabernacles of bribery f^ and, if we 
allow most largely for figurativeness of expression 
here, the words must mean, that it is the will of 
God, that bribery shall be punished, as far as man 
has the power of punishment, in the most severe 
and signal manner. We find in Holy Writ no 
apology, no excuse, no mitigation, as to this atro- 
.cious offence. We find no attempt on the part of 
the bribers or bribe-takers to justify their conduct 
on the plea that there had always been bribery in 
the world : and when the bribing wretches of the 
present day can find a justification in the antiquity 
of the crime, the murderer w^ill find a justification 
in the example of Cain, and the malignant perse- 
cutors in the example of the devil himself 

Bat, we must not dismiss this subject without a 
rem.ark or two upon the duties of society with re- 
gard to the wretches abandoned to this detestable 
and oppression-creating crime. We see clearly the 
will of God as to bribers and bribe-takers: but, 
we ourselves are to act in accordance with that 
will. We cannot, indeed, cause hre to consume 
the tabernacle of bribery; but we can do, and 
ought to do many things, with regard to the guilty 
and odious wretches, which we but too often 
leave undone. It is our duty not to give counte- 
nance, on any account, to bribers or bribe-takers, 
even silently, much less ought we to give a sort of 
sanction to their crime by treating them, or speak- 
ing of them, with respect. 

The Psalmist has clearly taught us our first duty 
with regard to these corrupt wretches. *' Gather not 



god's vengeance against bribery. 50 

my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men, 
in whose hands is mischief, and whose right hand is 
full of bribes y We are, then, at the very least, to 
keep aloof from them. We are not to associate 
with them. We are, every one of us according to 
his power, to set a mark of reprobation upon them. 
We are to warn our children, our brethren, our 
friends and neighbours against an intercourse so 
clearly tending to contamination, as w^ell as so 
manifestly offensive to God. To associate with 
these wretches; to live with them as with other 
men; to treat them as it is our duty to treat the in- 
nocent and virtuous, is to be guilty of self-abase- 
ment, and, which is worse, to give countenance to 
a sin, mischievous to society and marked out as an 
object of the wrath of God. We are warned, and 
with great propriety, not to associate with drunk- 
ards, with thieves and with murderers ; but, it may 
be safely asserted, that associating with these, not 
excepting even the latter, is less dangerous, that is 
to say, leads to less evil in the end, than associating 
with the children of bribery ; for, here the seeds of 
the most deadly corruption are sowed, and their 
fruit consists of every evil with which mankind 
can be afflicted. Oppression is the immediate con- 
sequence of bribery; oppression produces misery; 
and misery every species of crime. Fathers, if 
you would see your children virtuous and happy 
keep them far away from the tabernacles of bribe 
ry ; teach them to loathe the wretch, who has pur- 
chased the soul of another, or sold his own. Judas 
was a perjurer and traitor as well as a taker of 
bribes ; and, what Judas was, such is every man 
gnilty of bribery. 

Nor is our hatred and contempt of the briber, or 
the taker of bribes, to be confined^ in their effects, 



60 FALL OF JUDAS ; OR, 

to merely keeping* aloof from men so abandoned to 
work iniquity. To know of treason against our 
earthly sovereign and not to endeavour to bring 
punishment on the traitor, is, in the eye of the law, 
an offence punishable even with death. To know 
of an act of murder, and not to denounce the mur- 
derer, is, in the eye of the same law, to be an 
accessary in his horrid crime. This law is found- 
ed in reason and justice ; for, by screening • these 
malefactors by means of our silence, we give coun- 
tenance and encouragement to the commission of 
the crimes of treason and murder. Does it become 
us, then, to be silent in the case of bribery known to 
us ? Does it become us to give, in this way, coun- 
tenance and encouragement to a crime, which, 
though not equal to treason or murder in point of 
horridness, surpasses them both in ukimate evil, 
seeing that it necessarily leads to the overthrow of 
civil society, and to the involving of the community 
in misery and crimes ? This does not become uS 
It is, on the contrary, a duty imperative upon us, 
to detect, expose, reprobate, and execrate, as far as 
our knowledge of the facts go, all who are aban- 
doned to this detestable offence; this cause of all 
minor corruptions ; this dry-rot of States ; this des- 
troyer of all morality and happiness, private and 
public ; this " the accursed thing^^ which, until it 
be cast forth from the camp, leaves a moment's 
repose to none but the base trafficker in bribes. 

In such a case, however, our indignation and 
reprobation are not sufficient, if we have more at 
our command. " A corrupt tree," says our Saviour, 
(Matthew, chap. 7, ver. 17.) *'bringeth forth evil 
fruit;" and, in ver. 19, he says, "every tree that 
bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast 
into the fir e^ Something more, therefore, than words. 



god's vengeance against bribery. 61 

something more than wishes, is necessary, in such a 
case. Precisely what we ought to do must depend 
upon our own capacity as well as upon the nature 
of the circumstances, and the occasion. But, ap- 
prized, as we are, of the magnitude of the evil ; 
knowing as we do the consequence of the crime: 
tasting as all men must of the bitter fruit whenever 
this tree of coTruption flourishes, it must be the 
bounden duty of every man to employ all the 
means in his power to hew it down, or to tear it up 
by the roots. Hi?? duty to the community of which 
he is a member; his duty to those children to 
whom he has given life, and over whose morals 
and welfare nature bids him keep constant watch ; 
and, above all, his duty to God, who has given him 
the earth to inherit, and reason to be his ^uide, 
command him to labour with all his heart, with all 
his soul and his strength in the destruction of this 
baneful tree. 

What must we think then, if there be men founcj 
in the world, endowed Avith more than an ordinary 
portion of mental power, capable of using that 
power, and that, too, with indefatigable zeal, in 
justifying, and even eulogizing, the hateful crime, 
the commission of which brought indignation on 
the sons of the pious and revered Samuel, and 
which God has said shall bring fire to consume the 
tabernacles of the criminals 1 But, thus it is that 
bribery works its way. It purchases first the pow- 
er of oppressing ; it obtains the " gain of oppres- 
sions;" and with that gain it purchases defenders of 
itself. In its progress it corrodes and poisons all 
that ought to contribute to the safety and happiness 
of man. It perverts the judgment; it enfeebles the 
public mind; it gives predominance to ignorance 
and fraud ; it lays the foundation of that total ruin 
6 



62 FALL OF JUDAS, &C. 

which must, sooner or later, fall upon the com- 
munity. 

Yet, worse, more wicked, more detestable, even 
than such openly prostitute abusers of their mental 
faculties, are those, who assume the garb of godli- 
ness for the purpose of abetting, and covertly 
profiting in, the commission of acts of bribery. 
This is the very tip top twig of the tree of iniquity. 
Here, if to be found on earth, is real blasphemy. 
Here is a settled design to do injury to man and tc 
make a mockery of God. Many and horrid are 
the acts of wickedness committed in the world; 
acts in defiance of all law human and divine; but, in 
his whole course, does the sun cast his rays upon a 
wretch so detestable as he, who, with the Bible 'in 
his hand, and with piety on his lips, tmdeviatingly 
pursues throTigh life the path of oppression, prac- 
tised through the means of bribery; who coolly 
and with inward delight enjoys the fruits of his 
corruption ; and, dying, bequeaths his hypocrisy as 
an inheritance to his children? Samuel's sons 
were abashed, and skulked from their high office : 
even Iscariot had some compunction; but, the 
habitual, the hypocritical briber, or bribe-taker, 
becomes, in time, wholly bereft of conscience: fire 
may consume his tabernacle; he may fall head- 
long; his bowels may tumble forth ; but remorse, 
even at his latest gasp, finds no way to his filthy 
soul. Like Judas he goes to his " proper place," 
where he finds, that, though hypocrisy gave him 
impunity with man, there is a God to infiict ven- 
geance on bribery. 

J 



THE RIGHTS OF THE POOR, 

AND THE 

PUNISHMENT OF OPPRESSORS. 



" Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make 
the poor of the land to fail : saying, When will the new moon 
be gone that we may sell corn? And the Sabbath, that we 
may set forth wheat, making the Ephah small and the Shekel 
great, and falsifying the balances by deceit ; that we may buy 
the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes ; yea, and 
sell the refuse of the wheat? Shall not the land tremble for 
this ; and every one mourn that dvvelleth therein 1 I will turn 
your feasting into mourning, saith the Lord God, and your 
songs into lamentations." — Amos, ch. viii. ver. 4 to 10. 



Seeing that man is what we find him to be, the 
existence of poverty seems indispensable, whether a 
people be in a wild or in a civilized state. God 
does not actually furnish us with food and raiment: 
he only tenders us the means of furnishing our- 
selves with even the bare necessaries of life. He 
sends the fowls, the fishes, the beasts, the fruits, the 
trees, the rocks ; but, before we can apply them to 
our sustenance or our covering, we must perform 
labour upon them. The means are, indeed, most 
abundantly supplied ; labour is sure to be paid a 
hundred fold for every movement it duly makes ; 
but, still there must be labour performed before 
any thing in the way of food or raiment can be 
obtained. 

Man, and, indeed, it is the same with every living 
thing, delights in ease ; and labour, though condu- 
cive to health, and, therefore, in the end, to pleasure, 
does, in itself, partake of the nature of pain: it 
fatigues the body, or the mind, and, therefore, to 



64 RIGHTS OF THE POOR, AND THE 

cause it to be performed a motive is requisite, and a 
motive, too, sufficient to outweigh the natural love 
of ease. In proportion as the labour is of a nature 
to cause fatigue, to give pain, to place the body in a 
state of risk, the motive to undertake and perform 
it must be strong. And the fear of 'poverty ; that 
is to say, the fear of being destitute of food and 
raiment, appears to be absolutely necessary to send 
the savage forth to hunt for the flesh of the deer and 
the skin of the bear, and to induce men to perform 
all the various functions necessary to their support 
in civil society, and not less necessary to the exist- 
ence of civil society itself 

This motive is, too, the great source of the virtues 
and the pleasures of mankind. Early -rising, sobrie- 
ty, provident carefulness, attentive observation, a 
regard for reputation, reasoning on causes and 
effects, skill in the performance of labour, arts, 
sciences, even public spirit and military valour and 
renown, will all be found, at last, to have had their 
foundation in a fear of poverty ; and, therefore, it 
is manifest, that the existence of poverty is indis- 
pensably necessary, whether a people be in a wild 
or in a civilized state ; because without its existence 
mankind would be unpossessed of this salutary 
fear. 

But we are not to look upon poverty as necessa- 
rily arising from the fault of those who are poor, 
there being so many other causes continually at 
work to produce poverty amongst every people. 
The man who is born an idiot, or who has been 
stricken blind by lightning, and who, in conse- 
quence of either of these calamities, is destitute 
of the means of obtaining food and raiment, is 
poor without any fault. Feebleness of frame, ail- 
ments of the body, distress of mind, may all pro- 



PUNISHMENT OF OPPRESSORS. 65 

duce poverty without fault in the afflicted party. 
There may be misfortunes, the impoverishing ef- 
fects of which no human industry, care or foresight 
could have prevented. Poverty may arise through 
the faults of parents. In all such cases the poor are 
clearly entitled to the compassion, the tender con- 
sideration, the active charity, out of which relief 
instantly springs. Nay, even when poverty mani- 
festly proceeds from unhappy disposition, from 
untractable temper, from our own passions, it 
ought not to be visited with a very severe chastise- 
ment. And as to starvation and nakedness, they 
are too heavy a punishment for any crime short of 
wilful murder. 

This being the view, which common sense, 
which natural justice, which the unenlightened 
mind of even the savage in the wilderness, takes of 
the matter, what are we to think of those, too many 
of whom are, alas ! to be found, who, in the posses- 
sion of a superabundance of good things of all 
kinds, affect to make the bare fact of poverty a pre- 
sumption of the existence of crime ; who drive the 
poor from the gate ; and who, in the insolence ari- 
sing from that opulence which ought to make them, 
grateful to God and kind to man, not only deny 
the poor to be their brethren, but look on them, 
speak of them, and, in some respects treat them, as 
a distinct and degraded kind of beings ? And, if 
this insolence fills us with indignation and calls 
aloud for punishment, are even the thunders of 
Omnipotence too terrible for those, who thus think 
and act, while they are adding to their opulence by 
means like those described in the words of my 
text ? Here is oppression. This is the very worst 
of oppression too, because practised by fraudulenii 
means. 

6* 



66 aiGHTS OF THE POOR, AND THE 

li robbery, in all its forms, is wicked; if robbery 
of even the most wealthy merits the chastisement of 
the law, and is, by the laws of a community, pu- 
nished with death, what must those deserve who rob 
the labouring man, make him poor by means of 
robbery committed on him, and then treat him as a 
slave ? The E'phah was the measure by which 
wheat was sold ; the Shekel, a piece of money of 
gold or silver. The oppressors, spoken of by the 
prophet Amos, and against whom Grod's vengeance 
was by him denounced, diminished the measure, 
while they augmented the price. By the aid of this 
double-handed fraud ; by the aid of false balances, 
and that of vending, at the same time, the refuse 
of the wheat, they would soon reduce the defence- 
less labourer to beggary, and that would naturally 
be succeeded by his abject slavery; they would 
soon " buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a 
fair of shoesJ"^ 

" Shall not the land tremble for this ?" Aye, 
and justly too. With justice will the feastings 
of the opulent in such a state of things be turned 
into mourning, with justice will their songs be turn- 
ed into lamentations. 

It is in the nature of things, that those who are 
engaged in bodily labour should be the least capa- 
ble of defending themselves against the effects of 
oppression, and especially when it approaches them 
in the frauds of measures and prices. Therefore it 
is in the duty of the Elders, the Magistrates, the 
Law-givers, under whatever name they may go, to 
take care that those who labour be not thus de- 
frauded, oppressed and enslaved ; to take care 
that the Ephah be not made smaller and the Shekel 
larger : to take care that the measure be not dimi- 
nished' and the price augmented : to take care that 



PUNISHMENT OF OPPRESSORS. 67 

the labourer be not, whether by force or by fraud, 
deprived of his fair and just wages. It is the^r^^ 
duty of all rulers to watch over the happiness of 
the 'people at large, civil society having- been form- 
ed for the good of the whole of the people, and not 
for the profit, or honours of a few. And, can rulers, 
then, do their duty, and justify themselves at the 
tribunal of a God of justice, if they uphold, or suffer 
to exist, a state of things, which robs the labourer 
of his wages, grinds him down to the feet of the 
rich, renders him poor, and then makes him a 
slave ? " Accursed," surely are those, who cheat 
the poor by the means of fraudulent weights and 
measures, whether of goods or of money ; but not 
less accursed are those, who are the abettors or 
screeners of such as commit these sins, in defiance 
of the dictates of conscience and of the laws of God. 

The Bible is strenuously recommended to our 
perusal, it is highly extolled, it is widely distribu- 
ted. But, to what purpose, unless avb attend to its 
contents, and act up to its precepts ? And, amongst 
all the numerous precepts that it contains are there 
any enjoined with so much force, and so frequently 
repeated, as those of acting justly towards the la- 
bourer, and mildly and tenderly towards the desti- 
tute and unfortunate ? 

We have seen that the opulent have no right to 
withhold aid from the distressed, even where the 
distress has arisen from actual misconduct. What, 
then, must be the magnitude of the guilt of those, 
who first cause the distress, and then deny relief to 
the distressed person 1 Poverty, in some degree, 
is the lot of mankind ; but if we takb a survey of 
the state of nations, we shall find, that a very small 
portion of it really arises from any fault in the 
poor themselves; and that its principal cause is 



68 RIGHTS OF THE POOR, AND THE 

some vicious institution, some course of mis-rule, 
which enables the rich to rob, degrade and oppress 
the labouring- classes. " Thou shalt not oppress 
an hired servant, whether he be of thy brethren, 
or of the strangers that are within thy gates. At 
his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shalt 
the sun go down upon it, for he is poor and setteth 
his heart upon it." Deuteronomy,- chap. xxiv. ver. 
14 and 15. Here is the foundation of all the pre- 
cepts connected with the subject before us. We are 
not to oppress those that labour for us ; and the sort 
of oppression here contemplated, is not blows ; not 
tyrannical treatment ; not open and violent robbery ; 
but merely a withholding of hire ; a withholding 
of the whole or a part of that which is due to the 
hired servant ; of that which forms a just compen- 
sation for his labour. We are to give him this just 
compensation, and we are to do it without delay 
too ; for the sun is not to go down upon it. 

Therefore, all the contrivances which men may 
make use of for the purpose of withholding due 
hire from the labourer are strictly forbidden by him 
whose word we say we have before us when we 
open the Bible. There is precept upon precept for 
relieving and comforting the distressed, for lifting 
up those that are cast down ; but here is the begin- 
ning of this series of precepts : that is, we are by 
no means to withhold the hire of the labourer. And, 
indeed, to what a depth must we have sunk in in- 
justice as well as meanness, before we can bring 
ourselves to add to our wealth by drawing from 
such a source ! To practice fraud on those who 
are as rich as ourselves; to misuse the understand- 
ing and ingenuity which God has given us, so far 
as to employ them for the purpose of over-reaching 
in our dealings with those who are upon an equal- 



PUNISHMENT OF OPPRESSORS. 69 

ity with ourselves in point of wealth : to do tnis is 
to be both dishonest and base. Where, then, are 
we to find words to give an adequate description of 
the baseness of those who employ their under- 
standing and ingenuity for the purpose of adding to 
their heaps by fraud committed on the uninformed, 
and perhaps unfortunate creature, who is exhaust- 
ing his strength, and perhaps shortening his life, 
in the doing of that, which, without any fraud com- 
mitted upon him, is yielding us the means of earth- 
ly gratifications of every kind ? Here is disho- 
nesty ; here is cruelty ; here is the blackest ingrati- 
tude all united in the same act. If the man who 
has merely over-reached his opulent neighbour, 
dares not, on retiring to his pillow, recal the act to 
his mind, with what feelings must he place his head 
upon that pillow, who, after seeing the labourer 
toil through the week with sustenance hardly suffi- 
cient to support life, has, on the Saturday night, 
cheated him of part of the means of carrying home 
bread and raiment to his children ? If such a man 
can reflect on his conduct without remorse, he must 
be lost to all sense of honour as well as of honesty : 
it may fairly be presumed that nothing in this 
world can reclaim him, and that, in the next, every 
curse awaits him that God has declared shall be 
the reward of the oppressor. If even the Ox is not 
to be muzzled when he treadeth out the corn.- It 
even this is a transgression ; what must be the amount 
of the sin of withholding food from our poorer bro- 
ther who is labouring for our profit ? To commit 
such acts under any circumstances is sufficiently 
detestable; but, to commit them, while we affect 
zeal for religion, and expend money in the dis- 
tribution of the Bible, is to add to all the rest of the 
sin,' that hypocrisy which is to be blasted and 



70 RIGHTS OF THE POOR, AND THE 

withered like the "rush cut down in his green- 



ness." 



But, it is not only hare justice which God requires 
at our hands towards our poorer brethren. He re- 
quires a great deal more. He is not content with bare 
justice in the legal sense of the contract ; nor even with 
justice according to the spirit of the contract. His 
precepts go to the extent of our sharing- the good 
things, which he has bestowed upon us, with our 
poorer brother ; " so that none suffer and all may 
be filled." And this he grounds upon the princi- 
ple, that he himself is the Father of all, and that 
all the blessings that are enjoyed have been bestow- 
ed by him. Nothing can be more reasonable than 
this, besides its being a positive command. For, 
previous to the formation of civil society, all men 
had an equal right to the earth, and to all its pro- 
duce. In entering into society, therefore, men must 
have understood, and, as far as God himself conde- 
scended to give laws to a particular people, this na- 
tural presumption is confirmed, that no human be- 
ing in the community was to be without the means 
of effectual relief in case of want. 

Very minute are the precepts of the Bible in 
this respect. The Israelite Nation had been 
brought out of bondage ; and God continually re- 
minds them of that. He continually reminds the 
rich, that their fathers were all slaves ; all poor ; 
that they owed all to him ; and that as he h:id freed 
and enriched them, so they should not enslave, but 
should be kind and generous to their poorer bre- 
thren, and even to the stranger. He warns the 
rich, not only not to oppress, but not to take advan- 
tage of the poor, in any manner or shape. He en- 
joins them to lend to the poor, and forbids them to 
take interest. " If there be among you," says he, 



PUNISHMENT OF OPPRESSORS. 71 

" one of thy brethren within any of thy gates, thou 
shalt not harden thy heart, nor shut thine hand 
from thy poor brother ; but thou shalt open thy 
hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him suf- 
ficient for his need." Deuteronomy, chap. xv. ver. 
7 and 8. The text goes on to enjoin on the rich 
not to do this grudgingly; not to feel angry with the 
poor man ; not to regard this lending as any thing 
but a duty ; and even enjoins that, when the term 
of a bond servant is expired, he shall not only be 
suffered to go free, but shall not be sent away 
empty, but furnished liberally " out of thy flock, 
out of thy floor, and out of thy wine press ;" and 
then follows the principle upon which the precept 
is founded: "thou shalt furnish him liberally of 
that wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed 
thee ; and thou shalt remember that thou wast a 
bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy 
God redeemed thee ; and therefore, I command thee 
this thing to-day." All this is to be done, too, w^th 
good-will, and not grudgingly. " It shall not seem 
hard unto thee, when thou sendest him away free 
from thee ; for he hath been worth a double hired 
servant to thee in serving thee six years : and the 
Lord thy God shall bless thee in all that thou doest." 
Here is the precept; here is the principle on 
which it is founded ; here is the reward in case of 
obedience ; and, in case of disobedience the ven- 
geance of God is by no means less unequivocally 
stated. Here we have a description of the manner 
in which servants ; that is to say, those who labour 
in any manner or way, ought to be treated by their 
employers. It becomes employers, therefore, and 
especially if they pretend to consider the Bible as 
the word of God, to ask themselves whether they 
treat according to this rule, those who labour for 



72 RIGHTS OF THE POOR, AND THE 

I 

them. They should bear in mind that the prais- 
ing of the Bible ; that vehement reproach against 
those who are bold enough to deny its divine ori- 
gin ; that even the expending of money in order 
to cause the Bible to be distributed ; that all these 
are not sufficient ; and, indeed, that they weigh not 
as a feather, without obeying the precepts which 
the Bible contains. Such persons should consider 
that, without an obedience of the precepts, all their 
zeal with regard to the propagation of those pre- 
cepts, is not only unavailing, but is a proof of the 
profoundest hypocrisy, and forms of itself more 
than sufficient ground to justify the punishment 
which they may have to endure. 

It behoves such persons to reflect seriously ; to 
examine very scrupulously into their own conduct, 
and to compare it with the rule laid down for their 
guidance. It is very easy to read the Bible ; to 
sit and hear it read ; to condemn those who are in; 
clined to do neither. Salvation would be a cheap 
thing indeed if it were to be obtained at such a 
price. But every man who pretends to believe in 
the Bible ; to regard it as the word of God, and 
who, at the same time, sets its precepts at nought 
by his actions ; shews that he regards them as 
something to be made use of to keep others in 
check, and to be no check or restraint upon him- 
self; is really and truly a scorner ; and however 
he may settle his account with God, richly merits 
the detestation of man. Besides the duties, which 
those who are blessed with wealth have to perform 
in the character of employers, there are others 
which they have to perform in the character of 
possessors of property. God has made ample pro- 
vision for the poor, the fatherless and the widows. 
In the first place he allots to them the gleanings of 



PUNISHMENT OF OPPRESSORS. 73 

the fields and the vineyards. In the next place he 
gives them a share, and a large share, of the tythe 
of all the produce of the land. The Levite ; that 
is to say the Priest, he also gives a share ; but he 
gives a larger share to the stranger, the widow 
and the fatherless. If the Priest, therefore, refer 
us to the Bible for proof of his claim to a share of 
the produce of the earth, shall not the poor also re- 
fer to the same Bible for proof of the justice of 
their claim ? "At the end of three years thou 
shalt bring forth all the tythe of thine increase the 
same year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates^ 
and the Levite (because he hath no part nor inhe- 
ritance with thee) and the stranger, and the father- 
less and the widow, which are within thy gates, 
shall come and shall eat and be satisfied ; that the 
Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of 
thy hand which thou doest." Deuteronomy, chap., 
xiv. ver. 28 and 29. 

Now, will any man say that this is not the word 
of God ? Let him, then, fling the Bible into the 
fire. But will he say ; will he have the audacity 
to say, that it is the word of God, and that it is of 
authority as far as relates to the Priest ; and of no 
authority as far as relates to the poor ? If such a 
man there be, it is he that is the blasphemer : it is 
he that " perverteth the judgment of the stranger :" 
it is he that " turneth aside the poor in the gate 
from his right ;" it is he against whom God has de- 
clared that he will execute vengeance ; that he will 
cause to mourn instead of rejoice, and whose songs 
he will cause to be turned into lamentations. 

There is no festival ; there is no occasion of re- 
joicing ; there is no season or time devoted to ado- 
ration, but the poor is to derive some benefit there- 
from. The possessor and his family are to feast ; 
7 



T4 RIGHTS OF THE POOR, AND THE 

they are to rejoice ; all the signs of gladness are 
to be seen and heard ; plenty is to abound ; but in 
that plenty, the man servant, the maid servant, the 
stranger, the fatherless, and the widow are always 
to participate ; and the Priest is only to make on^ 
amongst the guests. 

If these parts of the Bible be to be disregarded ; 
if they be to have no weight with us, what reason 
is there for our paying attention to other parts of 
the Bible ; such, for instance, as treats of the fide- 
lity due from servants to their masters. God has 
said. Thou shalt not steal ; but he has said, and 
not less positively, " Thou shalt lend without in- 
terest, and the stranger, the fatherless, and the wi- 
dow shall freely, and without payment, partake in 
the produce of the fields ; thou shalt furnish, libe- 
rally out of thy flock, and thy floor, and thy wme- 
press to the servant who has served thee faithfully ; 
and thou shalt do this, too, at the time when he is 
quitting thy service." Can these precepts be justly 
disregarded, and can we at the same time justly de- 
mand punishment on the head of the thief? If the 
one can be disregarded, what authority have we 
for insisting upon a strict observance of the other ? 
While we remember all the precepts which enjoin 
duties on the poor, how are we to deny the validi- 
ty of the precepts which constitute their rights? 

It is of importance in a case like this, to inquire 
what oppression means ; for to oppress is a word 
not generally used in its right sense. To oppress 
the poor is not only forbidden over and over again 
in every book of the Bible, but it is seldom men- 
tioned without being marked out for signal ven- 
geance. Oppression may consist in the refusal or 
withholding of right as well as in the doing of 
wrong. It may consist in the using of lenity, 



PUNISHMENT OF OPPRESSORS. 75 

where it is used partially. It may consist, and this 
is most frequently its character, in the enforcing of 
laws in a partial manner, so as to make them weigh 
heavily on some and to pass lightly over others. 
If the law say, Punish the thief; pay the labourer 
honestly ; give to the poor, without payment, a share 
of the produce of the fields ; and if you punish 
the thief, without paying the labourer honestly, and 
without giving the poor a share of the produce of 
the fields, you are guilty of oppression : you are 
worse than a contemner of the law of , God ; for 
you not only set that law at naught, but you per- 
vert it so as to make it a pretext for your injustice 
and cruelty. You must take the whole together, or 
leave the whole. You are not to pretend that you 
are an observer of the laws of religion ; and at the 
same time neglect that part of them which imposes 
a duty on yourself Power, mere brute force, may 
enable you to act, at one and the same time, the hy- 
pocrite and the tyrant; but, of this you may be as- 
sured at any rate, that, while you thus basely dare 
the vengeance of God, you will never persuade the 
oppressed that there is any thing contained in God's 
word to prevent them, when they may chance to 
have the power, to do unto you, as you have done 
unto them. 

It is, therefore, the interest of the rich to act justly, 
mildly and tenderly towards the poor. Mere self-in- 
terest, without any other motive; without any regard 
had to sentiments of honour and to precepts of religion, 
teach the rich their duties towards their poorer bre- 
thren. Allthegoodthingsof the world come from the 
Creator. They are held intrust for the whole family 
of mankind. If a son having many brethren, were to 
possess an estate from his father ; were to take the 
whole for his own spending, and were to leave his 



76 RIGHTS OF THE POOR, AND TIlE 

brethren to toil, to beg, or to starve, he would be* 
come, and justly become, a reproach amongst his 
neighbours. And what are the possessors of large 
property but the more fortunate brethren of a nume- 
rous family? Would not the man be truly de- 
testable who could enjoy life, who could live in 
pleasure, who could think his state honourable 
while his unfortunate sisters and brothers were in 
rags ; and yet, is such a man more detestable than 
he who can be well satisfied ; who can enjoy the 
effects of riches ; who can think his condition ho- 
nourable, w^hile he is unable to stir a furlong from 
his door without seeing many of his poorer neigh 
hours perishing for want ? The mind of such a man 
must be shockingly perverted ; or else he would 
perceive that he participated in the disgrace be- 
longing to a state of things in which such misery 
could exist. 

Kings are called, sometimes the fathers of their 
people ; and certainly, when the people are govern 
ed in a way to make them resemble a good and 
happy family, the office is worthy the appellation. 
But when one part of the people are aggrandised 
by means which plunge the other part into poverty 
and misery, the appellation becomes inappropriate, 
not to say contemptible and ridiculous. The duty 
of individuals, however, is plain and straight-for 
ward. Riches ought to puff no man up. They 
are in themsel es no proof of the excellence of the 
possessor. They form no fair title to pre-eminence ; 
and where they obtain pre-eminence, virtue and 
wisdom must necessarily be on the decay ; because 
a love of gain will be the prevailing passion. 

The great corrective of the insolence of riches is 
to be found in tracing them back to their source; 
that is to say, to the lojhour of the 'jjoor. This is the 



PUNISHMENT OF OPPRESSORS. 77 

source of all riches ; for, if the labourer received, at 
all times, the full value of his labour, no profit 
could arise from it to any other person. All the 
profit would remain with himself, and no one 
would be puffed up into riches. It is not contended 
that this ought to be; because the order of the 
world requires that there should be motives to ex- 
ertion ; and these motives are the hope of riches 
and the fear of poverty. But, a state of things may 
arise when men are not content with moderate 
riches ; and this may lead to oppressions which 
may in time destroy the fear of poverty ; which may 
in short make the labourer worse than a bondman; 
make him a slave ; make him the property of his 
employer ; hang the lash over his back and deprive 
him of all fear but of that. Unhappy, indeed, is a 
people reduced to a state like this. The name of 
foor is in such a case hardly applicable ; and, in- 
deed, the word poor does not belong, in reason, to 
the labourer. The state of the labourer is merely 
one of the links in the chain of society ; it is one 
of the ranks of society ; and, rightly viewed, it is 
by no means the lowest. All property has its ori- 
gin in labour. Labour itself is property ; the root 
of all other property ; and unhappy is that commu- 
nity, where labourer and poor man nre synonymous 
terms. No man is esseritially poor : poor and rich 
are relative terms ; and if the labourer have his 
due, and be in good health, in the vigour of life, and 
willing to labour, to make him a poor man, there 
must be some defect in the government of the com- 
munity in which he lives. Because the produce 
of his labour would of itself produce a sufficiency 
of every thing needful for himself and fimily. The 
labouring classes must always form nine tenths of a 
people ; and, what a shame it must be, w^hat an im- 
7* 



78 RIGHTS OF THE POOR, AND THE 

putation on the rulers, if nine tenths of the people 
be worthy of the name of poor ! It is impossi- 
ble that such a thing can be, unless there be 
an unfair and unjust distribution of the profits of 
labour. Labour produces every thing that is good 
upon the earth ; it is the cause of every thing that 
men enjoy of worldly possessions ; when, there- 
fore, the strong and the young engage in labour 
and cannot obtain from it a sufficiency to keep them 
out of the ranks of the poor, there must be some- 
thing greatly amiss in the management of the com- 
munity ; something that gives to the few an unjust 
and cruel advantage over the many ; and surely, 
unless we assume the character of beasts of prey, 
casting aside all feelings of humanity, all love of 
country, and all regard for the ordinances of God, 
we must sincerely regret, and anxiously endea- 
vour to remove such an evil whenever we may find 
it to exist. The prophet, in the words of my text, 
speaks of some of the causes of such an unnatural 
state of things. False measures, false balances, 
addition to the price of food ; the lessened Ephab 
and the augmented Shekel: these are amongst the 
means by which the labourer is oppressed; by 
which he is crushed down into poverty and slavery. 
And, upon the supposition that men are not to be 
deterred from wicked acts by the threatened ven- 
geance of God, are considerations connected with 
a love of country to have no weight ? Is all that 
we have heard at different periods of our lives ; 
and all that we have said about love of country ; 
about the honour of our country ; the greatness of 
our country : does all this mean nothing at last ? 
And what does country mean, disconnected with 
the people that inhibit the country '? And how can 
the people of the country be said to be in an honour^ 



PUNISHMENT OF OPPRESSORS. 79 

able state ; to be renowned, to be glorious, if nine 
tenths of them be worthy of the name of poor ? 
The man who can talk about the honour of his 
country, at a time w^hen its millions are in a state 
little short of famine ; and when that is, too, appa- 
rently their permanent state, must be an oppressor 
in his heart : must be destitute of all the feelings, 
shame and remorse : must be fashioned for a des- 
pot, and can ^nly want the power to act the charac- 
ter in its most tragical scenes. 

A disposition to relieve the distressed and mise- 
rable, when they actually come to that state, is 
wanting in but few persons. Spectacles of woe 
seldom fail to produce some impression on even the 
most obdurate heart. There are, indeed, some who 
are capable of seeing the victim of oppression actu- 
ally expire before their eyes, while they themselves 
are decked in silken robes and loll on couches of 
down, the fruit of the oppression. There are some, 
who are capable of going still further, of not only 
viewing with dry eyes and without a helping hand, 
the victim of oppression in his last agonies ; but of 
turning those agonies into jest. These, however, 
are not men, they are monsters ; and are not to be 
brought into our view in speaking of the duties of 
men towards their poorer brethren. There are few 
persons insensible to feelings of humanity and com- 
passion when they behold the victim in the last sta- 
ges of misery,. There are also few, who, in such a 
case, will withhold a helping hand ; will not endea- 
vour, and from right feelings at the moment, too, to 
afford relief 

But, the thing to be desired is, the duty for us to 
bear in mind is, the prevention of the existence of 
the misery. There is merit, certainly, in relieving 
distress ; and the merit is in itself so clear and so 



80 RIGHTS OF THE POOR, AND THE 

amiable, that we ought never too scrupulously to 
inquire into the motive : but far greater is the 
merit ; much more disinterested, because, not at all 
likely to be repaid by either praise or gratitude ; 
much greater is the merit in endeavouring, though 
without success, to prevent the misery that calls 
for relief To bestow alms, to clothe the naked, 
to feed the hungry, to shelter the houseless, to 
snatch the expiring victim from the jaws of death ; 
these always merit, and the world is always so just 
as to give them, unequivocal praise. But far great- 
er is the praise due to those who endeavour to pro- 
vide, or to cause to be provided, the means of pre- 
venting nakedness, hunger and destitution of shel- 
ter. This, therefore, is the duty to be inculcated; 
this is the thing which ought to stand foremost in 
our view, and of which we ought never to lose 
sight during the course of our lives. This is true 
charity ; this is what our country and what the laws 
of God call for at our hands. 

Few men are so situated as to be able to extend 
their exertions in this way beyond the circle of their 
own private connections and dependants ; but 
every man, who is not actually a labourer himself, 
has some one whom he has to employ to labour 
for him ; and, therefore, if every such man were 
to take and lay before him the great precept of the 
gospel, and were thereupon to do as he would be 
done unto, there would be very little of that po- 
verty and misery, which are now to be seen in al- 
most every country, and at almost every step. To 
steal, to defraud, to purloin in any manner of way, 
to appropriate to one's own use the goods of ano- 
ther ; these are all crimes, well known to the laws 
of God and man. And, is it not to steal ; is it 
not to commit fraud; is it not to purloin; is ii 



PUNISHMENT OF OPPRESSORS. 81 

not, in short, to rob, if you take from the labourer 
more than the fair worth of the wages you pay 
him ? Even to overreach, to outwit your equals 
in point of wealth, though in transactions illegal 
in themselves, are deemed v^^orthy of expulsion 
from society; and yet to defraud the labourer, 16 
defraud him who is the maker of your riches, 
who gives you ease and abundance, the profit of 
whose labour (and that alone) places you above 
him in the estimation of the world : to defraud him, 
cheat him by the means of false measures and deceit- 
ful calculations, is thought nothing of, or if thought 
of, only as a matter of exultation, the criterion of 
cleverness being the greatest quantity of labour ob- 
tained in exchange for the smallest quantity of food ! 
In order to disguise from ourselves our own 
meanness, ingratitude and cruelty, we put the thing 
on a tlifferent footing: we consider labour as an 
article of merchandise, and then proceed upon the 
maxim, that we have a right to purchase as cheap 
as we can. This maxim, even supposing the idea 
of merchandise to be correct, is not so sound as ha- 
bit, and very vicious habit, makes us regard it to be. 
We are not justified, upon any principle of moral- 
ity, to give less for any thing than we ourselves 
believe the thing to be worth, because this is not 
doing as we would be done unto. The comparison, 
therefore, is of little avail ; and besides, a v/orse ex- 
ample than that of the merchant could not easily be 
referred to. " He is a MerchantJ^ says the pro- 
phet HosEA, " the balances of deceit are in his hand ; 
he loveth to oppress^ No woader that those who 
wish to enrich themselves by the means of unjust 
profits drawn from labour should put themselves 
upon the footing of the merchant ! But labour is 
not merchandise, except, indeed, it be the labour of 



82 RIGHTS OF THE TOOR, AN1> THE 

a slave. It is altogether personal. It is insepara- 
ble from the body of the labourer ; and cannot be 
considered as an article to be cheapened, without 
any regard being had to the well-being of the per- 
son who has to perform it. The labourer, if you 
persist in treating his labour as a commodity for 
which you have a right to give the smallest quan- 
tity of food in return, has his rights too ; his rights 
of nature ; his right to a sufficiency of food and of 
raiment ; or else his right to employ his strength 
and ingenuity to obtain them without reference 1o 
the laws passed for the appropriation of the proper- 
ty created by labour. 

It is, however, nothing more than shuffling and 
equivocating with our consciences to attempt to jus- 
tify by such arguments the withholding from the la- 
bourer his fair share of the profits of his labour. 
The man who wholly disregards every m.oral and 
religious consideration ; who tells you at once that 
he regards the labourers as cattle, and that he has 
a right to treat them in that way which shall be 
most conducive to his own advantage, is consistent 
enough: he is a brute in human shape; like a 
brute he acts, with the additional malignity of hu- 
man refinement. But what are we to say of the 
pretended friend of religion ; of the circulator of 
the Bible ; of the propagator of the gospel, w^ho, 
with brotherly love on his lips, sw^eats down to a 
skeleton, and sends nightly home to his starving 
children, the labourer out of whose bones he ex- 
tracts ev*en the means of his ostentatious display of 
piety ? What are we to say of the bitter persecu- 
tor of " infidels," who, while he says grace over 
his sumptuous meals, can hear, without the smallest 
emotion, the hectic coughs of the squalid crow^ds 
whose half-famished bodies pine away in the pes- 



PUNISHMENT OF OPPRESSORS. 83 

liferous air of that prison which he calls a fac- 
tory? 

Can such things be ; and can such men know 
peace of mind ? Can avarice and habit have so far 
obliterated reason, deadened the feelings of humani- 
ty, quieted the cries of conscience as to afford tran- 
quillity to such men, on the miserable plea that 
their conduct squares with the maxims of com- 
merce ? So did the conduct of Judas Iscariot ; for^ 
to rob men of their blood differs only in degree 
from robbing them of their sweat ; and, in some 
respects, the former is less cruel than the latter. 
Deliberately to take away man's life ; coolly to be- 
tray him and sell his blood ; patiently to lie in wait 
for the blood of our neighbour ; seems to admit of 
no comparison in point of atrocity. But, does even 
the murderer's spy much exceed in iniquity the 
wretch who adopts and steadily pursues a system 
of fraud on those by whose labour he is enriched? 
To profit by deceits practised on the community at 
large ; to cheat our neighbours and countrymen by 
means of short measures, false balances and extor- 
tions ; this bespeaks a heart odiously wicked ; this 
bespeaks greediness, dishonesty and cruelty ; what, 
then, must the man be, who can deliberately and 
systematically act in the same way towards those, 
who, in his field, or under his very roof, exert their 
strength and exhaust their ingenuity for his bene- 
fit ; and who are content if they obtain a mere suf- 
ficiency of food and of raiment out of the fruits of 
that labour, which gives him all the means of in- 
dulging in luxurious enjoyments ? What must tha 
man be, who can see his table spread with dainties, 
with all that nature aided by art can set before him 
to pamper his appetite; who knows that he owes 
no part of this to his own labour ; and yet, who can, 



84 RIGHTS OF THE POOR, AND THE 

while he affects to thank God for the blessing, stu- 
diously defraud and degrade those whose labour 
has created all that he possesses, all that fills his 
heart with pride 1 

Oppressors, and especially oppressors of this de- 
scription, seldom fail to be hypocrites, hypocrisy 
being necessary to screen them from public 
odium. In the ranks of feigned and ostentatious 
humanity such men generally stand amongst the 
foremost. But, will this avail them ought ? Will 
this take them out of the purview of the prophet's 
denunciation? God has not said, nor has he 
left room for the oppressor to hope, that he who 
has delighted in, that he who has fattened on, 
*'the gain of oppressions,''^ is to purchase forgive- 
ness by flinging his orts to the almost expiring op- 
pressed, or by hiding their naked and shivering 
limbs with the cast-off coverings of his horse! God 
has commanded, that those who labour shall have 
their full share of the fruits of their labour ; that 
they shall be liberally furnished out of the flock, 
the floor and the wine-press. He has most point- 
edly commanded, that this shall be a matter of rights 
and not of favour ; and he has strictly forbidden 
the giver to make any humiliation of the receiver 
a condition of, or a circumstance belonging to, the 
gift. Obedience dindi fidelity in servants God strict- 
ly enjoins, but the compensation for these is not to 
consist of garbage, rags and beds of straw : out of 
that which arises from his labour the servant is to 
share, not only in all things needful unto him, but 
in all the pleasures springing from the same source. 
And, again, what must that man be, who can enjoy 
festivity, arising out of the fruit of his servant's la- 
bour, while he knows that the limbs which have 
created the feast are perishing with cold: while 



PUNISHMENT OF OPPRESSORS, 85 

he knows the feast to he the fruit of unrequited 
toil, and that that which fills his body and 
makes his heart glad, is, if traced home, the flesh, 
blood, and bones of the labourer ? To attempt per- 
suasion, to reason, to expostulate, with such a man 
is vain. Give him the thing in kind ; cut up the 
carcase, and serve it him in a charger : he remains 
unmoved. Nothing short of the vengeance of God 
can touch his heart of flint; he has lowered the 
measure and heightened the price; he has made 
the Ephah small and the Shekel great ; he has fal- 
sified the balance by deceit ; he has robbed the 
hired servant of his hire ; he has bought the poor 
for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes ; he has 
fattened on the gain of oppressions ; he has " eaten 
the flesh and drunk the blood of his poorer bro- 
ther ;" *' his feasting shall be turned into mourning, 
saith the Lord God, and his songs into lamenta- 
tions." 

8 



GOD'S JUDGMENT 
ON UNJUST JUDGES. 



" Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stran- 
ger, fatherless, and widow. And ail the people shall say 
Amen." Deut. ch. xxvii. ver. 19. 

"That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the 
prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward ; ana the 
great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire : so they wrap 
It up." Micah ch. vii. ver. 3. 

"Therefore havel made you contemptible and base before 
all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but 
have been partial in the law." Malachi ch. ii. ver. 9 



To judge, when we are speaking of our conduct 
towards our neighbour, means, not only the exer- 
cise of the faculties of discernment and discrimi- 
nation ; not only the forming of an opinion, but 
also the giving of that opinion : and, in speaking of 
judicial matters, it, of course, includes, the acquit- 
tal, or condemnation, of any one whose conduct 
has been submitted to our examination and de- 
cision. 

From this definition we, at once, perceive, that 
there are two distinct kinds of judging, and that, 
in judging, we may, on different occasions, act in 
two characters, very different from each other in 
point of importance. In the one character, w^e are 
merely the volmitary givers of opinion on the con- 
duct of our neighbour, without having the power 
to add direct consequences to that opinion ; but, in 
the other character, we are clothed with power to 
acquit or to condemn, to add, immediately, conse- 
quences deepl}^ affecting our neighbour. ^ 



UNJUST JUDGES. 87 

Even in the former of these characters we ought 
to take our steps with great circumspection. An 
unjust opinion of our neighbour, when we give it 
utterance, becomes slander ; and, m the catalogue 
of sins, slander is by no means the lowest. *' Who- 
so privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut 
off." Psdmci. ver. 5. We are warned in Mat- 
thew, ch. vii. ver. 1. not to judge, lest we be judged; 
and, in numerous other parts of the Scriptures we 
are most solemnly cautioned against unjust opin- 
ions of, and censures on, our neighbour. Christ 
tells us /" not to judge according to appearances; 
but judge righteous judgment." John, ch. vii. ver. 
24. That is to say, to consider well and patiently 
the motives, or the temptations, that may have led 
to .our neighbour's conduct, before we condemn 
that conduct even in our own minds, and more es- 
pecially before we give utterance to our censures 
on it, and thereby expose our neighbour to calami- 
ties that may arise out of our censure. 

Cases, do indeed, frequently arise, when the evil 
of withholding our censures would be far greater 
than that of pronouncing them. In such cases du- 
ty calls on us for promulgation. But, when this 
latter proceeds from a desire to place ourselves in 
advantageous contrast with our neighbour, or to 
gratify the selfish feelings of others to whom we 
may wish to make our court, or, from the still more 
odious but too frequent motive of finding an excuse 
for fickleness in friendship, breach of fidelity, or 
want of active compassion ; then the promulga- 
tion of censure, even though that censure be found- 
ed on truth, is, in itself, an act of injustice, and ge- 
nerally a much greater sin than that to which the 
censure is applied. 

It then, we are to be thus scrupulous, and are to 



88 

guard ourselves with such great care again-st acting 
upon conclusions, drawn even from facts which 
admit of little or no doubt, and in cases where 
our decision has only a probable and remote 
effect on the well-being of our neighbour, what 
ought to be our anxiety in cases where our deci- 
sion is attended with certain and immediate con- 
sequences affecting his life, liberty or property, and 
where by our erroneous, intemperate, corrupt, or 
partial judgment, he may be bereft of happiness, 
and plunged into misery all the days of his life ! 

It is of judging when clothed with such fearful 
power that I am now to speak ; and, first, let us in- 
quire into the origin of this power. ** Who art 
thou," says the apostle James, " that judgest ano- 
ther f And, where is the right that man has to take 
away the goods, or enchain the body, or shed the 
Wood of man ? What is it that makes the putting 
of man to death, in certain cases, by the hands of man, 
not murder ? 

The foundation of this right, and of the power 
that proceeds from it, is, the necessity of such 
power to the existence of civil society. There 
must be a common arbiter between man and man., 
to which arbiter all men must submit. Laws there 
must be to punish offences ; or there can be no se- 
cure possession of goods, no peace, no safety of per- 
on. Hence arises the right of man to judge man ; 
a right that God has not given to any particular 
class of persons. He has given it solely for the good 
of the whole community wherein it is exercised ; 
and not for the benefit of any particular part of that 
community. 

When man sits in judgment on man, he exerci- 
ses the highest of the functions that man can exer- 
cise. The judged party has been deprived of alJ 



UNJUST JUDGES. 89 

his own power of acting in the case. He has "been 
compelled to come and submit his property, liberty, 
or life, to the judgment of another, or others. He 
is thus compelled to submit for the good of the 
whole community. He has had taken from him 
all power of resistance to the judgment, he that judg- 
ment what it may. He is man subjected to the ab- 
solute power of man. But upon this express con- 
dition, laid down with such precision and such em- 
phasis in the laws of God, that the judgwxnt shall 
be just ; that is to say, that it shall rest upon true 
grounds, that it shall be mixed up with no corrupt 
motive, and, above all things, that there shall, nei- 
ther in the judgment itself, nor in the degree of pu- 
nishment, be any respect of persons, any favour or 
partiality. 

Judges, under which appellation are included all 
persons by whatever name known, that have any 
thing to do in accusing, in pronouncing, or in con- 
demning, in judicial cases ; judges are fully and 
most awfully warned of the consequences of mis- 
conduct, whether arising from negligence or cor- 
ruption. Judges are to make " diligent inqui- 
sition ;''^ Deut. ch. xix. ver. 18. and, in 2 Chron. 
ch. xix. ver. 6. Jehoshaphat " said to the Judges, 
Take heed what ye do : for ye judge not for man, 
but for the Lord, who is loith you in the judgment. 
Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon 
you ; take heed and do it : for, there is no iniquity 
with the Lord our God, no respect of persons, nor 
taking of gifts.'^ It were to be desired, that all 
those, who are clothed with judicial power, would 
bear these injunctions in mind; and also bear in 
mind the judgment that await themselves, in case 
they prostitute their power to do injustice. 

The great and most prevalent motive to the doing 



90 god's judgment on 

of injustice is the hope of gain in return for the 
atrocious act. The law-giver of the Israelites 
takes care to warn judges against this temptation, 
and he, in the words of my text, pronounces a curse 
upon them, if they do injustice to the poor and 
defenceless. It is, indeed, " doing evil with both 
hands earnestly," when " the judge asketh for a re- 
ward ; when the great man utiereth his mischie- 
vous desires ;" and when " so they "wrap it up^^ 
When Judges, or any persons concerned in the 
giving of judgment, act thus, surely they merit even 
that curse, which God has pronounced upon them. 

Holy Writ is full of injunctions, warnings, and 
denunciations as to this crying sin ; this cold-blood- 
ed offence against man, against the laws of God, 
against all the feelings of human nature. *' A 
wicked man taketh a gift out of his bosom to per- 
vert the ways of judgment." Pro v. chap, xvii, 
ver. 23. Again in Isaiah, chap. i. ver. 23. " Thy 
princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves : 
every one loveth gifts, and folio weth after re2^ar<i5 : 
they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause 
of the w^idow come unto them." 

But, let not men deceive themselves. By the 
words bribe, gift, revmrd, many things besides 
money, or goods in hand, may be meant. A bribe, 
a gift, or a reward may come in various shapes. It 
may assume a thousand forms : it may be present, 
but it may also be distant : it may be certain, but it 
may also be contingent : and, perhaps, direct bribes, 
given into the hand at once, are the least dangerous 
of all. For, the conscience of a man might startle 
at a direct bribe; a plain bargain for injustice; a 
barefaced receipt of the price of his perjury and 
cruelty. Many a man will take that indirectly, 
which he will not hold out his hand to receive. 



UNJUST JUDGES. 9 1 

He mujt be an abandoned wretch intleed, who will 
hold out his polluted hand, saying, " Give me the 
price of this man's blood." 

Yet, does he, in effect, do less, who finds guilt in 
his neighbour without cause, clearly established; 
who inquires not diligently; who determines from 
the hope of any benefit, certain or contingent, pre- 
sent or distant; or who judges his neighbour from 
the fear of loss to himself from whatever cause the 
fear may be apprehended? It is a very lively pic- 
ture of the workings of corruption, in matters of 
judicial judgment, that is given by the prophet 
MicAH, in the words of my text. *' The great 
man uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wra^p 
it wpP That is to say; so they diguise it : so they 
carry on their frauds and abominations : so they do 
injustice in the name of justice: so they rob, so they 
mutilate, so they load with chains, so they murder; 
and all under the name and with the due forms of 
law and of justice. 

This wrapping up, as the prophet aptly calls it, 
is the great secret of judicial iniquity. If transacted 
openly, the w^orks of injustice are so odiou^ in their 
very nature, that they must soon bring the mon- 
sters guilty of them to an end, in one way or 
another. But, being disguised, they go on for a 
long time, and, in general, end not but with some 
convulsion that dissolves the community itself By 
degrees they become visible in spite of all wrapping 
up.. Victim after victim amongst the strangers and 
friendless ; escape after escape amongst the great 
and rich; these make men reason, whether they 
will or not; reasoning produces a conclusion in 
every just mind, that a tyranny exists; and, from 
that moment the fall of the tyrants is decreed as 
completely as if by the voice of a prophet. " WoCj" 



92 

says Isaiah, ch. x. ver. 1,2. " Woe unto them that 
decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievous- 
ness which they have prescribed; to turn aside the 
needy from judgment, and to take away the right 
from the poor of my people, that widows may be 
their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless.*' 

And how is this " ?/;oe" to show itself! In deso- 
lation, in degradation, in the miost dreaded of 
punishments. The judgment pronounced on Je- 
hoiakim by Jeremiah, ch. xxii. ver. 15, is a general 
sentence on unjust judges: "Shalt thou reign, 
because thou closest thyself in cedar? Did not thy 
father do judgment and justice, and then it was 
well with him ? He judged the cause of the poor 
and needy : Avas not this to know me ? saith the 
Lord. But thine eyes and thine heart are not 
but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent 
blood, and, for oppression, and for violence, to do 
it.'' And what is the sentence on this unjust 
prince and judge? " He shall be buried with the 
burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the 
gates of Jerusalem." 

Is God unjust? Is this doom too severe? Is 
this too much as a punishment for the cruelty and 
baseness of judicial injustice? In the first place, 
before a man who is vested with the power of 
judging can even think of acting unjustly, he must 
have made up, coolly made up his mind to falsify 
his solemn promise, made before man and with God 
called to witness. Cruel he must be ; for well he 
knows the sufferings that his injustice will occasion. 
And how base must that man be, who can see the un- 
ofTen ding victim before him, and coolly doom him to 
destruction ! Thou callest thyself <:^ man, doest thou, 
wretch ! And, perchance, talkest of thy home, thy 
kindred, thy wife and children ! And, the poor victim, 



UNJUST JUDGES. 93 

then? Has he not home and kindred and wife and 
children ? And will you, for your own base pur- 
poses ; to gratify your own greediness or vanity, 
or to hush your own coward fears, consign him to 
chains, or deliver him over to the axe ? " Cursed'^ 
be thou then, " and let all the people say, Amen.''^ 

The perpetrators of injustice are not to imagine 
themselves free from guilt, because they do not all 
at once pounce upon their prey and tear it to 
pieces. Proceeding with muffled paw, they destroy 
the victim by degrees ; but, it is destruction, never- 
theless, that they occasion in the end. Like vul- 
tures, they merely, at first, wound the hapless 
creature, and then lay him by till their appetite 
demand him. The prophet Zephaniah seems to 
have judges of this description in his eye, when he 
says : " Her judges are evening wolves ; they knaw 
not the bones till the morrow ;''^ a figure of speech 
most aptly applied to those, who, under the sacred 
names of law and justice, first by slow degrees, 
deprive the victim of all means of defence, rob him 
even of the compassion of mankind ; and then sacri- 
fice him to their own selfish purposes. They are 
slow in their approaches: they appear smooth and 
soft: they knaw not the bones " till the morrow ;" but 
then they crush them between their teeth, and they 
revel in the indulgence of all their natural ferocity. 

Cowardice is a quality universally despised, but 
not universally well defined. It is generally spoken 
of as synonymous with timidity, or bodily fear; 
that is to say, a great reluctance to expose the body 
to the risk of being hurt. If the word were con- 
fined to this meaning, the quality is 'injustly held in 
contempt; for, no man can help bemg timid, and a 
very great portion of women really are timid in 
this sense of the word. But, when one man sees 



94 god's judgment on 

his neiglibour wholly at his mercy ; when he sees 
even his enemy brought bound and laid prostrate 
before him; and can, then, take advantage of him 
to avenge himself (under the mask of doing justice) 
for some alarm which that neighbour has excited 
in his bosom; then, indeed, w^e see cowardice in its 
real and odious character. All the persecution of 
the apostles ^ the imprisonment of St. Paul; the 
stoning of St. Stephen to death ; the crucifixion 
of Christ himself; and all the perfidy, bribery 
and false-swearing, put in practice to effect these 
purposes, had their foundation in this species of 
cdwardice; the vengeance of corrupt men alarmed 
for the profits of their corruption, than which a 
motive more base never, surely, inhabited the hu- 
man breast. 

Nor let the aiders ^nA abettors in deeds like 
these hope to escape the judgment due to unjust 
judges. It is a miserable excuse to say, that yon 
did not wish the blood to be shed, or the body to be 
loaded with chains. Pontius Pilate and Felix 
could, and did, say as much. The unjust judge 
seldom uses the axe himself Darius did not cast 
Daniel into the lion's den with his own hands. He 
only consented to have it done. They who actually 
threw him into the den, did not devour him with 
their own jaws. But, did not Darius and his ad- 
visers do all they could to cause him to be de- 
voured? Were they not guilty of murder as 
completely as if he had been devoured ? And, is 
not, then, every aider and abettor in an unjust 
judgment as guilty as the judge himself? Such 
abettors may flatter themselves that the blood will 
lie upon other heads ; but, they are perverters of 
judgment, and the curse of God has been pro- 
nounced upon them. No excuse will be found in 



UNJUST JUDGES. 95 

having yielded to injustice to avoid displeasing 
other men; for, this is only one particular species 
of corruption. It is bottomed in a desire to avoid 
loss or injury ; and that is only another expression 
for gain: it is, in one and the same act, cowardice 
and corruption. 

Hateful as unjust judgments are in all cases, they 
are never quite so hateful as when the perpetrators 
affect to be religious, and to appeal to God to witness 
their integrity. And, if we carefully examine Holy 
Writ, we shall find the cruelest of injustice and an 
affectation of the most profound respect for religion 
inseparable companions. This is well illustrated 
in the prophet Micah, ch. iii. ver. 11. " The heads 
thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof 
teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for 
money: yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say. 
Is not the Lord among us? None evil can come 
upon us." And what says the Lord, whose name 
they thus abased? "Therefore shall Zion for 
your sake be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem 
shall become heaps." God tells the Israelites by 
the mouth of the prophet Amos, not to insult him 
with their religious ceremonies, but to practise 
justice and judgment. " I hate, I despise your 
feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn 
assemblies. Though you offer me burnt offerings 
and your meat offerings, I will not accept them : 
neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat 
beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy 
songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. 
But let judgment run down as waters, and righteous- 
ness as a mighty stream." Amos, ch. v. ver„ 21. 

What a rebuke! And does not this rebuke ad- 
dress itself to every man, who, while he is making 
an outward profession and show of religion, is 



96 god's judgment o?^ 

practising injustice and seeking innocent blood; 
who, while he is sprinkling the altar of God with 
tears of affected piety, is making human sacrifices 
to his own greediness, vanity and malice; or to 
the fear of giving offence to the " great man who 
uttereth his mischievous desire?" This rebuke 
ought to sink deep into the mind of those, who hope 
to balance their account by setting their outward 
show of piety towards God against their injustice 
tow^ards man. If they deem their encouragement of 
the distribution of the Bible a good work, let them, 
then, observe the precepts of the Bible. If they cite 
the Bible to prove, that to do justice on offenders is 
right, let them not forget the curse pronounced on 
those w^ho shall, under the mask of justice, be 
guilty of oppression. Hypocrisy, always odious, 
is never quite so odious as when employed as a 
mask for judicial injustice: it is the garb of piety 
assumed for the purpose of committing cruelty ; the 
garb of religion put on in order to sanctify a viola- 
lation of all the laws of God and man. Against 
the petulant, the intemperate, the violent, the openly 
profligate perverter of judgment, the oppressed 
usually find some remedy, some means of arresting 
the progress of his iniquity: but, against the perver- 
sion of judgment by the cool, placid, deep-designing 
religious hypocrite, there is no redress other than 
that afforded by the interposition of. the Almighty. 
Yet, does injustice admit of one other and still 
higher degree. Judgment may be perverted; the 
perversion may proceed from corrupt motives; 
hypocrisy may become the handmaid to corruption; 
cruelty may be the result: but, still, there wants' 
partiality to give the fiend its last tinge of black- 
ness. Here w^e touch the climax in the attributes of 
the unjust Judge ; and here we have before us an 



TJNJUST JUDGES. 97 

abuse of power that has never been sanctioned, or 
winked at, by any ruler without a speedy over- 
throw of the state itself 

Decrees and ordinances are not ju$t because 
they are mild ; nor are they unjust because they 
are severe. The most mild become hateful by par^ 
tial administration, and the most severe become re- 
spected when the administration of them is rigidly 
impartial. When the same measure of punishment 
is meted to every one, guilty of the same offence, 
no man has cause to complain: the law is then 
manifestly made and executed for the good of 
the whole community ; and, upon no other right does 
the infliction of punishment stand. But, when some 
men are severely punished, loaded with many 
stripes, for offences, which, committed by others, 
bring no punishment at all ; then it is equally mani- 
fest, that the laws are made solely for the benefit of 
a few, and that injustice and tyranny prevail. 
There can be, in such a case, neither lawful ruler, 
lawful judge, nor commonwealth. The bonds of 
the social compact are broken. 

Accordingly the Judge and Ruler of the world, 
in giving laws to man, has taken care to warn him 
against this daring outrage on all the feelings of our 
nature. Who does not recollect, that the paternal 
rod has frequently given pain ten times more acute 
only because it has not fallen with, impartiality ? 
Who, that has seen even a largess from a father 
bestowed on a beloved brother, without his own 
participation, has failed to feel the force of that love 
of impartiality which is a native of the human 
breast? What kind and just father ever avoided 
pain, when compelled to do any thing that savour- 
ed of giving one child a preference before another ? 
And if so much solicitude is felt in a case like this, 
9 



98 god's judgment on 

where the judgment is to be exercised with regard 
to the wants of the parties, and where the thing to 
be bestowed belongs in full and exclusive right to 
the donor, what ought to be the solicitude in a 
judge, who is no more than a trustee of the com- 
munity, who has to administer laws made for the 
general good, and who has none but an usurped 
and a tyrannical power, other than that which 
stands on the basis of y?/5/i^e, dve to all men alike? 
To enumerate all the injunctions of God to 
avoid partiality in judgment, would require a space 
of no small dimensions. Amongst them we may 
take a few, though one ought to suffice for the sa- 
tisfaction of any but determined scorners, or men 
daringly wicked. " Thou shalt do no unrighteous- 
ness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person 
of the poor,, nor honour the person of the mighty; 
but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neigh- 
bour." Leviticus, ch. xix. ver. 15. *' Ye shall 
not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear 
the small as well as the great : ye shall not be 
afraid of the face of man ; for the judgment is 
\ God's." Deut. ch. i. ver. 17. And again, ch. 
xvi. ver. 19. " Thou shalt not wrest judgment ; 
thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift." 
In Prov. ch. xxiv. ver. 23. " It is not good to have 
respect of persons in judgment." The apostle 
James, ch. ii. ver. 4< reprobates partiality even in 
trifling ceremonies; and St. Paul, to Timothy,, 
ch. V. ver. 21. thus solemnly enjoins him : ** I 
charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ 
and the elect angels, that thou observe these things, 
without preferring one before another, doing no- 
thing by partiality.''^ Last comes the prophet 
Malachi within the words of my text: " Therefore^ 
have I made you contemptible and base before all 



UNJUST JUDGES. 99 

the people, according as you have not kept my 
ways, but have been partial in the laws.^^ 

Are these the words of God, or are they not t 
The deist and the atheist will say No. And, far 
better to give the negative in either of those capa- 
cities, than pretend to be a believer ; than to call 
these the words of God, and to act in open defiance 
of the precept which they contain. Not to believe 
may proceed from defect of understanding ; but, 
to believe, and to disobey; to believe in words and 
to deride in acts ; to confess that it is God who 
speaks, and to set at nought the command conveyed 
in his words ; if this be not impious, where are we 
to look for proofs of impiety ? " The devils believe 
and tremble ;" but the believer who is partial in 
judgment, is, in this, so much worse than the de- 
vils, that he believes and trembles not. 

All injustice is criminal. Even when proceed- 
ing from error it deserves severe censure, because 
no judgment should take place without diligent in- 
quisition. When proceeding from corrupt motives 
it is base; but, when it discovers itself in partiality, 
however craft may contrive to " wrap it up,^^ when 
" the great man uttereth his mischievous desire," 
it becomes doubly detestable ; and, especially when 
distinctions are made between the great and the lit- 
tle, the rich and the poor, in favour of the former 
and against the latter ; wiping a feather over the 
back of the rich, and sendiug the lash like knix^es 
into the backs of the poor. 

When men behold judgments like these, they 
do not stop to inquire into the motive : they know 
that the motive must be corrupt. They are 
proofs of corruption as conclusive as would be a 
sight of the bribe actually passing from the hands 
of the favoured party into that of the Judge. The 



100 god's judgment on 

consequence is, that there remains no confidence 
in the rulers : that having become corrupt, to which 
the community looked for safety against oppression, 
the Magistrate thenceforth rules by force, and by 
force alone. His power, instead of being looked 
up to, as a shield for innocence, is regarded as a 
screen for guilt. His office is the reverse of what 
God has said it shall be ; it is a reward to evil 
doers and a terror to those who do well. 

Against seditions, conspiracies, treasons, and re- 
bellions we pray to be protected; but, what are 
these when compared with partiality in judgment! 
Against that which deprives the sources of power 
of all confidence; which subjects every man's 
goods, liberty and life to chance ; which alienates 
every heart ; and which kindles throughout the 
community a mass of unquenchable anger ? This 
is a sure forerunner of the downfal of states. In 
such a state of things there can be no legitimate 
authority ; no lawful sw^ay ; all is injustice and vi- 
olence. 

Partiality in judgment must necessarily lead to 
the commission of crimes. Those who are sure 
of impunity have nothing to deter them : and the 
poor, seeing that the rich commit crimes, will fol- 
low their example. The punishment of crime 
loses its only end, for which it is intended ; name- 
ly, to prevent the commission of crime by others ; 
for, if judgment be partial ; if some escape all pu- 
nishment, or merely undergo the forms of punish- 
ment, for ofiences which bring heavy punishment 
on others, punishment is looked upon, and justly 
looked upon, as an instrument used to keep the 
poor in subjection to the rich. 

There are few so ignorant as not to know, that 
God has strictly forbidden this partiality in judg- 



UNJUST JUDGES. 101 

ment ; hence a persuasion in many, that religion itself 
is a bugbear, employed by the few to keep the many 
in awe. For, if the same law, which says, Thou shak 
not steal, says also. Thou shalt not respect persons 
in judgment ; and, if the latter command be violated 
by the elders of the people and those on the very 
judgment seat, is it unnatural for the oppressed to 
conclude, that those elders do not themselves believe 
in any of the denunciations which the law contains ? 
What check, then, remains to theft and robbery, 
other than the force of arms and that vindic- 
tive punishment, which are called into action to 
supply the place of moral honesty and religious 
awe? 

Miserable is that community, and hastening to 
swift ^destruction, where the people yield an unwil- 
ling obedience to the ruling powers. There can 
be neither happiness nor security where obedi- 
ence proceeds solely from fear; for, as naturally 
as the sparks fly upwards, to be feared is to be 
hated. But, can obedience be willingly yielded, 
when a people is convinced of the injustice of those 
who judge them? When the many see, that the 
laws are made to be a terror to them and the sport of 
the wealthy few ? Laws may be very strict, judg- 
ments very severe ; but, if an even-handed distribu- 
tion of punishment take place, men will not complain. 
When they see the high as well as the low subject 
to the same inquests and the same penalties for the 
same offence, they must confess that the laws are 
fair and that the judgments are just. When jus- 
tice is thus administered, severe punishments ope- 
rate as a warning not to offend . it is the rod of a 
father correcting his children. But when the poor 
are made the 'scape goats for the rich; when the 
bodies of the former are lacerated, while those of 
9^ 



102 god's judgment on 

the latter go untouched, it is not the rod of a father, 
but the scourge of a tyrant. 

Amongst all the causes of deep-rooted anger, of 
implacable revenge, not one is so strong as the 
feeling inspired by partial judgment. To be our- 
selves lashed v^ith rods of scorpions for that which 
brings on another scarcely the v^eight of a finger, 
is too much for human nature to endure without 
seeking vensreance. In such an act there is every 
thing to irritate and inflame. Burning coals ap- 
plied to the flesh are less tormenting to the body 
than this outrage is to the mind. It is the last and 
most poisonous arrow in the quiver of cruel and 
cowardly oppressors. 

"Of Lau\^' says Bishop Hooker, "no less can 
be acknowledged, than that her seat is the bosom 
of God; her voice the harmony of the world. 
All things in heaven and in earth do her homage: 
the very least ^^ feeling her care; and the greatest 
as not exempted from her power." But, to make 
the law worthy of this eulogium, it must be impar- 
tial in itself and impartialk/ executed. Can a 
perversion of judgment proceed from the bosom of 
God ? Is it not impious to trace to the bosom of 
God the base act of the punishing the poor as an 
admonition to the rich, and, when the rich commit 
precisely the same offence, to " wrap it up'"' and 
let them escape ? Can the lav/ then be said to have 
its seat in the bosom of God, of that God who has 
pronounced his everlasting curse on those, who 
shall respect persons in judgment?' Can the voice 
of the law be harmony, when it is made to pro- 
nounce death on the petty thief, while it scarcely 
passes a censure on the grand robber thai strips 
thousands of their means of existence? Can har- 
mony be in a voice like this ? And what care does 



UNJUST JUDGES. 103 

such law take of ''the least ?" How can "the least 
feel her care,^^ when she has nothing for them but 
a scourge? What is the care that " the least" want 
from the law? To protect them. And, against 
whom? Certainly against the rich and powerful. 
What care, then, do they experience at her hands, 
if she lash them to the bone, while she " wraps it 
up" with the rich? Can the law when thus per- 
verted, receive homage from all things in heaven 
and in earth? Homage from the false and base 
indeed she may receive ; homage like that of the 
Missouri Savages, who address their supplications 
and thanksgivings to the Devil ; the homage of 
knaves and hypocrites who thrive by her, and of 
the rich culprits with whom she "wraps it up;" but, 
^'cursed be he that perverteth judgment," that re- 
specteth persons in judgment, "and let all the 
people say, Aw.en.''^ This is the sort of homage 
which perverted law ought to receive from all 
things in heaven and in earth. This is the sen- 
tence which God has pronounced on her corrupt 
administrators: "the burial of an ass, and to be 
cast forth from the gates of the city." 

Homage is indeed due to just authority. Go- 
vernment, which is only another vjordih'c manage- 
ment, applied to the affairs of nations, is absolutely 
necessary to the existence of civil society. Hence 
the observation that "all power is jfr^^w GodP But, 
then, it must he just power ; power exercised accord- 
ing to the laws of God, and those laws pronounce a 
curse on partial judges. It must be just power ; 
for the murderer has power to execute his deeds ; 
and God has said, " Thou shalt do no murder,^^ 
Therefore we are not to honour those in authority 
merely because they have power ; but, are first to 
consider, whether the power they have be just in its 



104 god's judgment, &c. 

origin and whether it be justly and impartially 
exercised. 

Amongst all the powers, with which persons in 
authority are invested, none are of so much import- 
ance to the community, none have so great and im- 
mediate an effect on the affairs of men, none have so 
much to do in producing public happiness, or public 
misery, as the powers of the Judge. When, there^ 
fore, he execute his high office with diligence and 
impartiality, no respect, no veneration, that we can 
entertain towards a human being can exceed his 
merits and our obligations. Of all the spectacles 
that reflect honour on human nature and that tend 
to elevate the mind of man, none is equal to that of 
a Judge, patiently investigating, diligently search- 
ing after truth, scrupulously discriminating, and 
impartially deciding; divested of all passion, leaning 
neither to the one side nor the other, having no 
respect of persons in judgment; bold in his integ- 
rity, setting at nought the displeasure of power, 
and having in his mind no fear but that of the pos- 
sibility of erroneously doing Avrong. But, if the 
reverse of all this characterize the exhibition: if 
the Judge, instead of endeavouring to elicit truth, 
employ all his skill and all his talents to envelope 
it in darkness, to clothe wrong in the garb of 
right ; if, his very looks at the outset declare him 
a partisan and not a Judge; if petulance and rage 
mark his inward fear of failing to effect his but too 
manifest iniquitous intention; if, at last, when 
coming to award judgment on the rich and on the 
poor, both guilty of precisely the same offence, he 
merely shake the lash over the shoulders of the for- 
mer, and make the forty-lacking one draw thirty-nine 
streams of blood from the loins of the latter, is not 
the favoured culprit covered with shame, and the 



THE SLUGGARD. 105 

Judge with infamy ? " So they wrap it up.^^ But 
is not every breast filled with indignation? Are 
they not *' contemptible and base before all the 
people?" Is not the curse of God pronounced 
upon them; and do not all the people say, Amen 



THE SLUGGARD. 



" Go to the Ant, thou sluggard ; consider her ways, and be 
wise; which, having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth 
her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the har- 
vest. How long. wilt thou sleep, O sluggard! When wilt 
thou arise out of thy sleep 7 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber 
a little folding of the hands to sleep? So shalt thy poverty 
come like one that travelleth, and thy want like an armed 
man."— Prov. eh. vi. ver, 6 to 11. 



The passage chosen for my text is one of the 
most beautiful that ever was penned ; and it contains 
an exhortation and a warning of great importance 
to all persons of both sexes and of all ages in al] 
the ranks and the callings of life. Man was born 
for activity, for exertion, and not to lie in a state 
like thai of those creatures who appear to live for 
no other purpose than that of increasing in bulk, 
merely to grow up out of the earth or its products, 
and, through some channel or other, to return to 
earth again. 

The causes of poverty and want are various. 
Some are wholly unavoidable ; some arise from 
dissipation; some from downright wickedness of 
disposition; but, a considerable part of all th© 



106 THE SLUGGARD. 

want and misery that we witness in the world, 
arises from sluggishness; from that hateful lazi- 
ness, that everlasting- hankering after rest, which 
is so well described and so strongly reprobated in 
the words of my text. 

It is surprising, but not more surprising than 
true, that a vice, and, indeed, a great sin, so hateful 
in itself, so injurious to the parties committing it as 
well as to the community of which they form a 
part, and so directly in defiance of the word of God, 
should, in this, and in many other countries, have 
found a sort of apology in the precepts as well as 
in the example of those who affect a particular re- 
gard for religion. 

The tribes of impostors of ancient times, who 
indulged in laziness at the expense of the industri- 
ous, affected peculiar devotion to God, dedicated, 
as they termed it, their bodies to the Lord. As if 
the body of man can, in any way, be so truly dedi- 
cated to its Maker as by its being made to perform 
those functions for which it was manifestly in- 
tended ! As if God, who has fashioned man for ac- 
tivity, who has made labour necessary to his health 
and even to his sustenance, should be pleased 
with, and should bestow his choicest rewards on, 
that part of human beings, who have made the 
least use of their limbs, and who have contrived to 
exist on the labour of others by assuming the garb 
of superior piety. 

The fanatics of our day are, only in another form, 
thesuccessorsof the impostors of ancient times; and, 
they are still more mischievous inasmuch as their 
teaching tends to produce sluggish?iess in others as 
well as to maintain it in themselves. To teach people 
to reli/ on God, without, at the same time, teaching 
them that they are to use their own exertions, is to 



THE SLUGGARD. ^ 107 

delude them to their ruin. God has given the 
earth and all the elements ; but, he has given no- 
thing for our use unaccompanied with the positive 
and indispensable condition, that we shall, in every 
case, perform labour, of some sort or other, in a 
greater or less degree. ,, 

Yet, by a misinterpretation, a torturing, an exag- 
geration, or at least, a misconception of the meaning, 
of those parts of the Bible, which speak of the vanity 
and worthlessness of human exertions and world- 
ly cares, a persuasion has been implanted in many 
minds, that laziness, with its natural consequences, 
rags and hunger, are not only not displeasing to God, 
but are amongst the surest outward marks of his es- 
pecial grace. Why, human exertions and worldly 
cares are, when pushed beyond certain bounds, 
vain and worthless, censurable and sinful. But, 
because, when a man's whole soul is bent on accu- 
mulating wealth, for instance; when he labours 
be^-ond his strength, grudges himself necessary 
sustenance, and worries his mind with anxieties as 
to gain ; because this is sinful, is there to be no 
labour, no care, at all ? Are we to make no exer- 
tions and to make no provision? " God feedelh the 
ravens,^'' says Jesus Christ. In that illustration of 
his meaning the whole of his doctrine as to worldly 
cares and exertions is explained. God feedeth the 
ravens: that is to say, God hath given the ravens 
wings and claws and beaks, wherewith to go in 
search of, to obtain, and to carry home, their food. 
He feeds man in precisely the same way ; that is to 
6ay, by giving legs, arms and hands. 

Yet is there prevailing the delusive idea, that 
some how or othex, food and raiment are to come 
by the favour of God, without bodily exertion. 
Plainly and in so many words, this is not, indeed, 



l08 THE SLUGGARD. 

avowed. But, the doctrine implies as much. Anci, 
the consequences are, that, where this species of 
fanaticism takes hold of the mind, cheerful exertion 
ceases, laziness and slovenliness and carelessness 
\ succeed, and are hallowed wdth the name of trust 
in God. All vanities are carefully to be avoided; 
but of all human vanities, what is at once so mis- 
chievous and so despicable as for the sluggard to 
conceit himself a saint, and to deem the outward 
and visible marks of his sluggishness, as amongst v 
the proofs of his inward and spiritual grace! 

When once this conceit gets into a dwelling the 
family is ruined; and, one of its first effects is to 
produce that sort of sluggishness which produces 
he habit of lolling late in bed, the evil effects of 
which, more particularly, it is my intention now to 
speak : a habit hostile to nature, injurious to health, 
productive of want and crimes, disgraceful to pa- 
rents and ruinous to children. 

To lag in bed is against nature. The whole of 
the animals of the creation rise when they have 
had a sufficiency of rest. None of them live in 
bed. And, except in cases where their security or 
the obtaining of their food absolutely requires them 
to retire to rest in the day time, they rise at all 
times of the year, with the sun, or before him. 
We cannot see in the dark. Few things can be 
done in darkness. The day is the time for us to 
be awake and to be active, and for us to take air. 
The body and the mind stand in need of repose 
during the twenty -four hours ; and nature as well 
as reason point out to us, that the night is the time 
for that repose. 

As to health, it is, in the true sense of the word, 
wholly unknown to the sluggard. Fie may exist 
01 an absence of acute pain; a naturally good con- 



THE SLUGGARD. 109 

stitutioa may even give him long life; but still he 
cannot enjoy ttat which is worthy of the name of • 
health.'. The morning air is the great invigorator 
of the body and sustainer of the animal spirit. 
Whether in towns or in the country, the morning, 
the three first hours after the dawn of day, is the 
time to breathe the air freely. What life, what ani- 
mation, activity and gaiety do we perceive, in all 
living creatures, early in the mornings compared 
with their state at the setting of the sun ! What a 
difference do we ourselves feel in the air of the morn- 
ing, if we then rise, compared with that which we 
meet if we rise when the sun is three hours high ! 

But, if our general health be greatly injured by 
sluggishness in the morning, how much does our 
sight suffer from the evening consequences ! So 
notoriously injurious is artificial light to the eyes^ 
that, when they are, from whatever cause, become 
feeble, the first step towards a cure is to shun such 
light. It is, in commendation of learned men, said, 
that they have "wasted much of midnight oil;^^ 
that is to say, that they have studied until late in the 
night. A poor compliment, the place of which 
would be honourable to them supplied by that of their 
having daily seen the morning dawn. It is against 
all reason and all experience to believe, that the 
mind can be as clear and as strong at midnight as 
at the hour of rising ; and, perhaps no small por- 
tion of the confusedness, feebleness and folly of the 
matter which we find in things going under the 
name of books, is to be ascribed to the circumstance 
of its having been of midnight origin. We all 
know from repeated and again repeated experience, 
that a thing which we in vain endeavour to call to 
our recollection in the evening, will, at our rising 
in the morning, occur to us at once and cause us to 
10 



110 THE SLUGGARD. 

be surprised at the over night's forgetfulness. It 
has occurred to innumerable persons to have tut a 
confused notion of a thing in the evening, and, 
without any new effort, to see the same thing clearly 
the next morning. This clearly shows, that the morn- 
ing is the time for the labours of the mind as well as 
for the labours of the body. What confidence then, 
can be placed in the studies and deliberations of 
those who turn day into night? Who begin the 
employment of the mind, when loads of food and 
drink, and a mixture of confused sounds, have ren- 
dered its workings like those of chaos 1- When the 
management of either families or nations (which 
are only congregations of families) fall, unhappily, 
into such hands, what have they to expect but error, 
negligence, confusion and all the consequences of 
misrule 1 

Let it not be imagined, that, so that we pass only 
a certain number of hours in bed, it is no matter, as 
to our health of what part of the twenty-four they 
consist. It matters very much. The morning air 
braces the nerves, strengthens the frame, and keeps 
the mind clear. By lengthening our day at the 
other end, we lose that which is to be found only 
at sun-rise and a short time after. The body and 
mind mutually act upon each other. The pleasures 
which the morning affords to the mind assist in 
giving force to the frame; and that force communi- 
cates itself to the mind. Even drunkards, who have 
been early risers, have had long life; but, such as 
have been sluggards as well as drunkards have 
seldom lived out half their days. 

However, though life is precious with health and 
though without health it is worth little, it is in a 
moral point of view that early rising is of the most 
importance. He who does not rise early can never 



THE SLUGGARD. Ill 

make any great exertion for any length of time. It 
can be in few cases that a man does that at once, 
which is to decide his fate in life. His fortune, his 
fame, his means of existence even, mast generally 
depend on often-repeated, or long-continued exer- 
tion. There must be, in the greater part of cases, a 
series of acts; a trial of perseverance. Of how 
much importance is it, then, to crowd as many acts 
and as much efiect as possible into the space of 
every day? 

The day, which does not begin till three hours 
after the sun is up is not a day. It is only a part 
of one, and that part not the best. If the employ- 
ment be qf a mental nature, the understanding is 
slow at any time compared to what it is in the 
morning early ; and, it is a fact as notorious as is 
that of the existence of the world, that, in the affairs 
of bodily labour, an hour early in the morning is 
worth two or three after the middle of the day. 
The man who is not up with the lark is always 
behind hand. He is never ready, never to his 
word. If his well-being depend on the good-will 
of others, he can hardly hope to maintain that good 
will, unless he be punctual to his engagements; 
and punctuality and late rising are wholly incom- 
patible. To the husbandman sluggishness is cer- 
tain ruin ; and, indeed, to every other man who 
has* others to whom to giYe commands. If the 
master be stirring, all stirs, and all thrives; but, if 
he yield to '* a little more slumber," all slumbers, 
and nothing prospers; nothing is successful; no- 
thing wears the face of promise. Could we ascer- 
tain with precision, the causes of the decline of all 
men whom we have before seen in possession of 
abundant means, we should find no very small 
part to have had their origin in sluggishness gene- 



112 THE SLUGGARD. 

rally, and more especially in that species of slug- 
gishness which is evinced in late rising. 

The quantity of labour, of which we are capa- 
ble, is greatly diminished by beginning it late in 
the day ; but, the quality of it also is diminished. 
Nothing, if done in haste, is done so well as it might 
be done. How many excuses do we make for the 
badness of our work, on account of its having been 
done in a hurry ! And, how often does this hurry 
arise from the "folding of the hands to sleep" in 
the morning ! When the sluggish master does 
rise, at last, all is hustle, and, it is lucky if any one 
escape his reproaches. He finds all behind-hand ; 
^he finds nothing right; he well knows that the 
fault is his own ; but, he, conscious of his indispo- 
sition to correct himself, throws the blame on 
others, and uses his power to disguise from them 
and from himself too, as far as possible, the shame 
which justly belongs to himself 

Night-fall always finds the sluggard busy, and 
yet makes him retire leaving something undone 
that ought to have been completed. Hence he is 
never happy, never ^pleased, never really satisfied ; 
and, all who are so unfortunate as to be, in any 
degree, dependant on his will or power, lead mise- 
rable lives. No sluggard is a cheerful man ; ill 
health, or trouble of some sort, is always preying 
upon his mind ; and, therefore, he is a dull com- 
panion, a gloomy inmate, a worthless servant, and 
a most disagreeable master. 

By throwing our labours on the latter part of 
the day, great additional expense in the perform- 
ance of them is occasioned, even in cases where 
they can, by artificial light, be performed at all. 
Every hour of day -light that is lost, or exchanged 
for candle-light, by the in-doors tradesman, causes^ 



THE SLUGGARD. 113 

in proportion to the magnitude of the woik per- 
formed, a positive additional expense, besides the 
loss from inferiority of workmanship and from 
various other causes. In the management of a 
family the case is nearly the same. And, if a 
family consist of any considerable number of per- 
sons, the expense of supporting it by candle-light 
exceeds that of supporting it by day-light in the 
amount of many pounds in the year. 

The sluggard must drive off his hours for taking 
refreshment. Meal after -meal is deferred, till a 
large part of the time spent in eating and drinking 
consists of hours of darkness. Hence come waste 
and destruction in all sorts of ways. When ^Ne 
consider the mere destruction of useful things, 
arising from a life by candle-light or lamp-light, 
we almost regret, that the invention was ever dis- 
covered. In cases where fire is necessary on ac- 
count of climate or Aveather, what an addition to 
the trouble and expense arises from the keeping of 
late hours ! In the morning activity renders arti- 
ficial warmth less necessary than it is when the 
body is without motion; and, from this cause alone, 
how many millions are annually wasted, and how 
many families helped on to their ruin! The 
habit of late hours, like all other evil habits, steals 
on us by degrees. It places us much by the fire- 
side, to which we become more and more attached, 
till, at last, we quit it with the greatest reluctance, 
even to remove to that bed, which is its rival in our 
affections. Fir^, as a thing merely to give us 
warmth, is, at the very best, a necessary evil, and 
a very great evil too. Ought we not, therefore, to 
render it as little as possible in degree ? Ought 
we voluntarily, and against our own manifest in- 
terest, to augment it ? The excuse for sitting up 
10^ 



114 THE SLUGGARD. 

late frequently is, that we are not disposed to sleep. 
This, which in time becomes a species of malady, 
has an obvious and instant cure in early rising ; 
for, let it be well borne in mind, that to lie awake, 
is not the same as to rise. 

Late hours are the chief cause of that destructive 
practice gaming, which is at once the companion, 
the twin brother, and the rival of drunkenness. 
To game in the morning is seldom seen, even 
amongst the wretches who make gaming a trade ; 
and, as to the rudiments of this species of profliga- 
cy, they are uniformly acquired by the iire-side, 
while waiting for that sleep, which refuses at an 
early hour to lay its weight on the eye-lids of the 
morning sleeper. Gaming has fraud for its basis. 
The motive is> to get from another a part, or the 
whole, of what he has, without yielding him any 
thing in return. The ruinous consequences of 
gaming are too notorious to be dwelt on in the way 
of giving information, and they are of too great 
magnitude to occupy a side place in the enumera- 
tion of evils. But, that it is the duty of parents and 
masters to prevent gaming in their families is evi- 
dent enough ; while it is equally evident, that late 
hours constitute the greatest of all temptations to 
that ruinous vice. The child that rises with the 
sun needs no cards to bring on the time for it to go 
to sleep. 

And, has the master of a family nobody but child- 
ren w^hose welfare is committed to his charge? 
He has apprentices, he has servants, to whom he 
owes his example, while he has duties to demand 
from them. It is in vain to w^ork solely by pre- 
cept ; it is in vain for the sluggard to extol the 
benefits of early rising. He must rise himself, or 
he may hold his tongue. If the master of a familj 



THE SLUGGARD. 115 

kee'[) such hours as necessarily produce gaming 
and dissipation, who but himself has he to blame, H 
he have neglectful, profligate and thieving servants ; 
if his substance be wasted, and he himself ruined *? 

Clearly true as all this is, obvious as are the evils 
of sluggishness, it is but too true, that this vice, 
along with general luxury and effeminacy, have 
been, for years, slowly, but constantly, creeping 
over the whole community ; and, though we well 
know, that it is a vice, which is not to be cured but 
by great suffering, even that suffering is, in such a 
case, to be hailed as a blessing. The Sluggard 
must, in some way or other, be fed by the labour of 
other men : somebody must suffer for his laziness : 
wife, children, neighbours, his country; somebody 
must do more than they ought to, if he do less. 
There is no state of riches that justifies the slug- 
gard : if he live on his own means, he is contempt- 
ible, but if his indulgence be at the expense of 
others, he is criminal : he is a drone that eats when 
he gathers not ; is worse than nothing in the crea- 
tion, and very little short of a robber. 

If left to depend on his own exertions he speedily 
receives his due reward. From one step to another 
he proceeds, till, at last, the very bread is wanting 
to him. " His poverty shall come like one that 
travelleth and his want like an armed man." His 
poverty shall approach him gradually, and, at last, 
his want shall be irresistible and shall bring him 
down, while there is no hand to raise and no heart 
to pity. When we see the industrious man sink- 
ing there are few so callous as not to wish, at the 
least, to hold him out some support ; and, if from 
want of ability in his neighbours, he find not effi- 
cient support, he is consoled by their compassion. 
■^'tt, wl^r '^r ^^-^2;-Yd sinks, not a hand moves, 



il6 THE SLUGGARD. 

and not a tongue is heard but to acknowledge th<5 
justice of his fate. God has fed him as he feeds the 
ravens : he has given him the means of obtainfmg 
food, and he has neglected and rejected those means. 
The very basis of civil society is, that it shall pro- 
duce good to the whole, and that no man shall suffer 
from absolute want of food and raiment. But, then, 
there is this condition, equally clear and imperative, 
that no man shall be maintained in his sluggishness 
by the toil of the industrious ; for, without this qua- 
lification the principle of claim to relief would be 
intolerably unjust. 

In many cases the ruined and fallen man has 
ignorance to plead ; but the sluggard has no such 
apology. The light, the darkness, every living 
thing,, the very air he breathes ; all nature ; all 
that he sees, hears and feels ; every thing urges 
him to rise with the sun, and to make, in time, due 
provision for his wants. Like the ant, he stands in 
need of no guide, overseer or ruler ; but, he needs 
the industrious disposition of that laborious and 
persevering little creature, which, if you scatter 
abroad the whole of its dwelling and its stores, 
goes, instantly, cheerfully and patiently to work to 
gather them together again, and carries along at 
each load four or fiYQ times the weight of its body. 
What a reproach to the sluggard ! With all na- 
ture thus incessantly affording him precepts, warn- 
ing him of the consequences, what excuse has he ? 
What claim has he, when poverty overtake him, to 
assistance or compassion ? 

When we view sluggishness in all its charac- 
teristics and effects, we cannot but wonder, at first 
thought of the matter, that there should be, in the 
whole world, such a being as a sluggard. It is, 
therefore, of importance to trace this disgraceful 



THE SLUGGARD. 117 

vice to its cause. Some men are naturally more 
slow in their movements, less animated, than 
others ; but, for a man to be a real sluggard, there 
must be a cause contrary to nature. And, that^ 
cause we shall, in almost every instance, find in 
the evil example, or criminal indulgence of parents, 
or masters. The sons and daughters of sluggards 
will, if not separated from them at a very early age, 
be sluggards as surely as the young ones of the 
drone will seek to live on the honey of the bees. 

To expect of sluggish parents to teach their child- 
ren industrious practices would be to set reason at 
defiance. To exhort them to it would be to cast 
reproach on the parents themselves. But, indus- 
trious parents, through a mistaken kindness, may 
send forth into the world, a race of Sluggards. 
Something assuming the name of fondness, in the 
mother, and which, perhaps if thoroughly examined, 
is unworthy of the name ; this, joined to the want 
of firmness in the father, have but too often sent a 
brood of lazy children from beneath the roof of in- 
dustrious parents. How careful, then, ought parents 
to be ; how vigilant in watching their own conduct 
in this respect ! 

The single man has little to care about. Food 
and raiment for himself are all he wants. But, the 
father of a family has duties to perform of a very 
important and sacred nature; and, if he neglect 
these, his professions of religion will, as they ought, 
avail him little. To have children w^as his own 
voluntary act, and in that act, he contracted an ob- 
ligation, not only to use all the means in his power 
to supply those children with all things necessary 
to bodily health and decency of appearance, but 
also to prevent them from being, when grownup, 
bad men and women. 



118 THE SLUGGARD. 

If suffered to lead a sluggish life, what must be 
their fate when they go forth into the world ? No 
matter what be their calling in life, they must, ex- 
cept by mere accident, go amongst those who Avill 
judge of them solely by their merits ; who will 
value them according to their w^orth; and will take 
the services they are able and willing to render as 
the standard of that worth. What gentleman, what 
farmer, what merchant, what employer of any de- 
scription should find an inducement or should have 
inclination to furnish a sluggard with food, rai- 
ment and money ? People give part of their sub- 
stance to others in exchange for something good 
which they receive, or expect, from those others. 
No man hires another to help him to eat, drink 
and sleep. And, this should be borne in mind by 
all who have to work for their bread ; especially 
by 'parents. 

What gentleman will confide his house, his gar* 
den, his horses, or any thing in which he takes a 
delight, or on which he sets a value, to one whom 
he finds to be a sluggard ? What merchant, what 
trader, will dare turn his back, leaving his affairs 
to one who needs dragging from his bed in the 
morning? What farmer can commit the life of 
even a hen or a duck to a sluggard ? And who is 
to be expected to be the servant of his servant, to 
rouse him in the morning and follow him through- 
out the day ? If any accident lead a son into the 
military or naval service, severe indeed is the pro- 
cess by which his cure is effected ! The proba 
bility is, that, to avoid the means of cure, he exposes 
himself to an ignominious end, the lamentations at 
which the parent ought to mix with reproaches on 
himself 

In the case of females the danger is still greater; 



THE SLUGGARD. 119 

for here, cleanliness and neatness of person are not 
only proper but requisite ; and whoever saw a 
sluggish woman that was not a slut in her house 
and a slattern in her person 1 Who will choose to 
eat or to wear after the hands of such a woman ; 
and above all things, who, unless he be worthless 
himself, will choose such a woman for his wdfe ? 

And, ought parents, then, to call it kindness, 
fondness, indulgence, when they are laying the 
foundation of sluggishness in their children? Is 
it a proof of love to insure the best possible chance 
of ruin to the object ? The swarms of unhappy 
creatures, thieves and prostitutes, that we behold in 
great cities, were not born thieves and prostitutes. 
They are not such by nature any more than other 
people. They have been brought to the lowest 
stage of vice by degrees, and, in numerous cases, 
the first step has been either inculcated by the ex- 
ample or encouraged by the indulgence of parents. 
These unhappy persons chiefly consist of turned-off 
clerks, shopmen, and servants, who, in the first 
instance, have been discarded on account of their 
neglect of some part of their duty. For, who that 
pay for services do not require services for their 
money ? Once, twice, thrice, the master may rouse 
a sluggish servant in any capacity ; but, in time, 
the mxost patient and forbearing becomes weary ; 
and, even if his compassion intervene and make 
him endure beyond the common measure of en- 
durance, he does the painful thing, he, at last, 
sends the sluggard to fold his hands elsewhere, not 
without reluctance after all, but from sheer neces- 
sity : he must discard him, or his affairs must 
stand still : in place of being a help, the sluggard 
is every where a burden. 

But he has '' a good character^ He is honest. 



120 THE SLUGGARD. 

sober and civil Very good, so far ; but it is ser* 
vices, it is activity, it is to do something, for which 
he is again wanted ; and, in a short time, he is 
again found wanting in this, the great purpose 
for which he has been sought after and contracted 
with. Nor, if we come fairly to the point, is it 
honest to be a sluggard and neglect to do that 
which we are paid for doing. To defraud an em- 
ployer of the labour or care due to him is, in the 
eye of morality, as bad as to defraud him of his 
coin or his goods ; the only difference being, that, 
in the former case, there is frequently breach of 
trust as well as fraud. The defence, or redress, 
that the employer has is to avoid the sluggard, or, 
discard him ; and, the application of this remedy 
by successive employers seldom fails to make the 
poverty of the sluggard advance with steady and 
rapid steps, and to bring horrid want to stare him 
in the face. 

When parents see their children brought to this 
state, and into those other melancholy situations to 
which poverty naturally tends, they ^Idom carry 
their reflections back to remote causes. If they 
were to be just enough to do this, their self-re- 
proaches would be a warning to those who wit- 
nessed them. The man for common life, is fa- 
shioned soon after he quits the cradle. His habits 
then begin; and they generally fasten themselves 
on him for even the longest life. How important, 
then, how sacred, are the duties, and how awful 
the responsibility, of parents ! But, how great also 
the compensation ! Great are the cares ; but, there 
is not one of these cares, which, if duly exercised, 
is not repaid by the prosperity which it tends to 
give to the affairs of the parent. " He that gather- 
eth in harvest is a wise son ; but he that sleepeth 



THE SLUGGARD. 121 

in harvest is a son that causeth his father shame." 
But, if the son sleep in harvest, is it not the father's 
fault? 

From their earliest days children should be 
accustomed to rise with the sun ; and, at a very 
few years old, to have labour or care of some kind 
imposed upon them. The things they learn when 
at that age, if to the instruction the "practice be 
added, they never forget. It requires no pains, no 
exertion, no expense to make children rise with the 
lark and imitate the ant in industry. But,^hen, 
you must begin betimes, and keep steadily on. In 
a few years they become of great value in point of 
earnings. A boy thus reared up is more trust- 
worthy at ten years of age than a sluggish youth 
at eighteen. What a difference is this in the situ- 
ation and circumstances of the parents even in the 
son's boyish days ; and what a difference when he 
becomes a man ! 

The twig is to be trained in the right direction 
when young and when very young, too, or, it must 
take its chance. The child of seven years old, w^ho 
has never known what it was to be in bed after 
day-light, will never, unless pains be taken to cor- 
rupt him, be a sluggard. And, is it not then, true 
kindness, true fondness, to make a child begin its 
life wath early rising ? Is it not also a duty due 
from parents ; and, will the neglect of this import- 
ant duty find an apology in any thing that their 
minds can invent ? 

When the apostle says, that men are to be judged 
by their works, he certainly means something that 
they are to do. Something in the way of action; 
and not a mere forbearance from evil deeds. To 
abstain from doing wrong is not to do what is right. 
Works are acts, and, in common life, they must 
11 



122 THE SLUGGARD. 

more frequently consist of bodily exertions very 
well known and unnecessary to be defined. And, 
if we neglect these, and particularly if we neglect 
to teach them to our children, do we vainly imagine, 
that we make compensation by passing a large por- 
tion of our time in the reading of Tracts and th« 
singing of Hymns ? Yet, of how much laziness, 
how much neglect, how much want, filth and mise- 
ry, are these at once the cause and the fancied ex- 
cuse ! 

"What have you done in the world?" and not 
*' what have you thought or professed to think /"' 
will, doubtless, be the question. And what answer 
is to be made by him or her, who has spent the 
better part of the day-light of life in drowsiness and 
laziness, exerting even the thinking faculties only 
for the purpose of discovering the means of secur- 
ing food and raiment out of the fruit of the labour of 
others ? Can any reasonable creature believe, that 
merely to believe, or to profess to belierte, no matter 
what the thing believed, is to form a compensation 
and satisfaction for a neglect of his real duties as 
servant, master or parent ? It is an abuse of words 
to call that serving God, which produces a neglect 
of the means of sustaining ourselves and our fami- 
lies; for, in our very organization, to say nothing 
of God's commands and of all his cautions against 
slothfulness ; in our very organization, we find the 
proof of the duties of diligence and care ; and to 
perform those duties well and truly is the very first 
service that God requires at our hands. 

Look, therefore, upon those to be impostors who 
would persuade you, that, to be religions you must 
neoflect the means of obtaining an abundance of 
food and raiment ; that to secure heaven hereafter, 
you must be poor, ragged, and almost die with 



THE SLUGGARD. 123 

hunger ; that, to be a child of grace, you must be a 
moving assemblage of skin and bone, distressing 
to the sight and offensive to the smell ; that God 
delights in sluggards, slovens and sluts, when you 
can scarcely read ten verses in the books of his 
laws which do not contain some command or 
other strictly enjoining industry, cleanliness and 
decency, and promising to bless with abundance 
the labours and cares of those who obey those com- 
mands. 

Let the mother, for instance, who has yielded to 
this pernicious, sluggard-creating fanaticism, think, 
even now, of the account that she will have to ren- 
der. " Lord, I have served thee most constantly. 
My tongue has not ceased to sing hymns to thy 
praise and to groan out Ameii to the words of my 
pious guide. I have cast aside all worldly cares ; 
husband, children, all have been abandoned for the 
great object of securing my precious and immortal 
soul. My love of thee has left in my breast no 
room for affection of any other kind ; and, I have 
seen, unmoved, my children in rags and filth cry- 
ing for that bread which my husband's labour 
brought, and with which I, for love of thee and my 
own precious soul, fed the holy man who repaid 
me with spiritual food. Poverty I have hailed as 
a blessing ; and want has been my constant conso- 
lation. That time which worldlings have bestowed 
on teaching their children to labour, to rise early 
and to toil through the day, I have spent in thy 
service, reading and meditating on the pious effu- 
sions of our spiritual guides. Tracts and hymns, 
and not the broom, the needle, or distaff, have been 
the utensils in my hands ; and, such has been my 
love of thee, and my anxiety to save my soul, that 
my heart has given to the winds even the fate of 



124 god's vengeance 

my children, brought to an untimely ena through' 
that want of industry and care which my love of 
thee prevented me from teaching them whether hy 
precept or example !" 

Monstrous as-this is, it is what truth would de- 
mand from but too many mothers ; and it is, in fact, 
what but too many really say in their hearts. Let 
all such look well at the words of my text. Let 
them deny that text to be the word of God ; or let 
them confess, that true religion consists in imitating 
the ant and not the drone. At any rate, let them 
bear in mind, that poverty and want, disgrace and 
misery, are to be the lot of the sluggard. 



GOD'S VENGEANCE 

AGAINST \ 

MURDERERS. 



Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder. Matt. chap. xix. ver. 18. 



Murder is a crime of so deep a die ; it is so 
direct a violation of the feelings of humanity ; it has 
something in it so shocking to the very nature of 
man, that, at first thought, it would appear wholly 
unnecessary to warn men against the commission 
of it ; and indeed, deliberately to set about such 
warning, and to remind men of God's denunciations 
against the murderer, would, on a cursory view of 
the matter, seem to be almost insult to a chiistiau 
community. 



AGAINST MURDERERS. 125 

Unhappily, however, such warnings are necessa- 
ry: for we but too often see beings bearing the 
human form capable of dipping their hands in hu- 
man blood, monsters so unfeeling, so brutal, as 
wilfully and aforethought to cause, with their own 
hands, that death, the bare sight of which even when 
proceeding from natural causes, is deeply affecting 
to all but callous hearts. With such, indeed, all 
remonstrance would appear to be vain : those who 
are deaf to the voice of nature, will hardly listen 
to that of reason. But, there are murderers who 
do not slay with their own hands ; and there are 
murders which are perpetrated by means other 
than those of violence of any sort committed on the 
body. The murders of this latter description, which 
are by far the most numerous, are not so obvious, 
not so plainly seen, as those of the former. They 
are disguised from the world ; they admit of no 
judicial proof; they escape the utmost vigilance of 
human laws ; they set the just vengeance of those 
laws at defiance ; they are reserved for the ven- 
geance of God, from whom the cool, deliberate, 
cruel and hypocritical, smiling murderer cannot 
hide either his deeds or his thoughts. 

It is of importance, therefore, for us to come to a 
clear understanding of the full ir^tent and meaning 
of the word murder. " Thou shalt not ^iZ/," is one 
of God's commands; but, that killing may take 
place without murder is very clear, for, in the con- 
tinuation of those very commands, it is provided, 
that in some cases the punishment of death shall be 
inflicted ; and, to fulfil these provisions of God's 
laws, there must be killing. It is evident, there- 
fore, that, to put men to death according to laws 
which are just in themselves and impartial in their 
execution, is perfectly agreeable to the laws of God; 
IP 



12G GOD^S VENGEANCE 

and, indeed, we very vt^el] know, that such killing 
is unhappily necessary to the safety of every com- 
munity. Nor was Moses a murderer, when he 
killed the brutal Egyptian and buried him in the 
sand. The cruel king of Egypt held the Hebrews 
in slavery, and had commanded that all their male 
children should be strangled in their birth. Moses 
had been preserved by something little short of a 
miracle, and had, in a secret manner, been brought 
up to man's estate amongst the Egyptians ; and "it 
came to pass, in those days, that he went out unto 
his brethren and looked on their burdens^ The 
sight of those, without any thing more, would natu- 
rally fill his heart with indignation ; but, while in 
this state of feeling, " he spied an Egyptian smiting 
one of his brethren,^'' which seems to have been too 
much for his high and noble mind to endure. He, 
therefore, having first looked about him and seen 
that there w^as no one to make discovery of the 
deed, *' slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand." 
Having the next day, reason to suppose that the 
thing would be made known to the tyrant Pharaoh, 
he fled into another country. There, however, the 
God of his fathers found him, tending the flocks, 
and chose and appointed him to be the deliverer 
of his people. Whence we are compelled to con- 
clude, that the killing of the tyrant's instrument of 
oppj-ession was not a criminal killing ; and, of 
course that it was not a murder; but consonant 
w^ith those laws of God, which this very Moses 
himself afterwards promulgated to his delivered 
brethren. 

It is not, therefore, the mere act of killing, but 
the cause of it, the motive, that we are to keep prin- 
cipally in view, when we are to determine, whether 
such killing come justly under the appellation of 



AGAINST MURDERERS. 127 

murder. And, as to the manner of the killing, it 
is evident that the criminalness is not in the least 
diminished by the circumstance of the deed not 
being affected by the killer's own hands or by those 
swiftly deadly means which, at once, and directly, 
assail the body of the object. Whether the kill- 
ing be perpetrated by our hands, or by those of 
others who act at our instigation or in furtherance 
of our well-known wishes ; whether the killing be 
swift or slow ; whether it be the dagger, the poi- 
soned cup, or the withholding of food, of raiment, 
^or of necessary care or aid, that w^e make use of ; 
whether the attack be that of. violence on the body 
itself, or that of more cruel torture inflicted on the 
mind ; still, wherever there is an unjust killing, 
there is, and must be, a murder, and he who causes, 
or abets, such killing, is a murderer. He may, 
indeed, in ceitain cases, and even in many cases, 
be beyond the reach of human laws ; but, should 
his hardened conscience leave him untormented ; 
should he, besides, by secrecy and hypocrisy, es- 
cape the execration of man, the final punishment 
due to the murderer awaits him. 

Various are the ways in which the horrid crime 
of murder is perpetrated. He who causes death by 
unjust means, deliberately used, is a murderer, let 
those means be what they will. To kill your enemy 
in war, for instance, is not murder ; but, to kill him, 
when he has no longer the power of hurting you, 
is murder of the most base and detestable kind. 
Let us remember the denunciation of David, when 
on his death-bed, ag-ainst Joab, 1 Kino-s, ch. i. ver, 
5. " Thou knovv^est,'' says the dying king to his son, 
" what Joab did to the two captains of the hosts of 
Israel, unto Abner and Amasa, whom he slew, and 
ihed the blood of war in peace. Let not, there- 



128 

fore, his hoary head go down to the grave in 

Nor is the crime at all diminished by the using 
of slow means to produce the death of those whom 
the chances of war have placed in our hands. If 
they die of disease; if they perish from hunger or 
cold; if, in short, their death be caused by our ill 
treatment of them, they are murdered and we are 
murderers. We shed the blood of war, in peace ; 
and the fate of the ferocious Joab ought to be ours. 
We do not, like him, actually put the blood upon 
our girdle and in our shoes ; but, we cause the 
death ; and the only difference is, that, w\hat Joab 
effected openly, and by the sword, we effect by 
secret, more cruel and more cowardly means. 

All oppressors are murderers ; and murderers 
too in the strict sense of the word. For shall he 
be a murderer who causes a single death, and he 
not a murderer who causes millions to suffer and 
thousands to die, and that, too, to gratify his own 
ambition, avarice, prodigality, or revenge ? " The 
wicked sitteth in the lurking places in the villages : 
in secret places doth he murder the innocent : his 
eyes are privily set against the poor." Psalm x. 
ver. 8. Again in Psalm xciv. ver. 6, " The wricked 
slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the 
fatherless." Again in Hosea, ch. vi. ver. 9, " As 
the troops of robbers wait for a man, so the com- 
pany of priests murder in the way by consent:''^ 
that is to say, in a deliberate and wilful manner, 
though, as we gather from the context, by means 
of lewd and profligate conduct. If a man, having 
the power, were to cause a particular island, or 
district, to be deprived of the means of subsistence, 
and, in consequence, all the people of that island or. 
district were to die of hunger, would not such a 



AGAINST MURDERERS. 129 

man be a murderer? And, would not he be a 
murderer, then, who, by means only less general, 
in their operation, were to cause any portion of a 
people to perish for want in the midst of plenty ? 
This is precisely what the Psalmist has in his eye; 
this is the secret and base crime, which, in the 
above-cited passages, he describes; the offence 
which he justly calls murder, and on which he 
invokes the vengeance of God. 

Vain is the hope of him, who hopes to escape 
this vengeance by skulking from the deed himself, 
and by causing it to be committed by the hands, or 
through the instrumentality of others. The laws 
of man hold, that he, who does a thing hy another, 
does the thing himself. If I employ a ruffian to 
kill my innocent neighbour, am I not the murderer 
of my neighbour ? It is true that the ruffian is a 
murderer also ; but that by no means diminishes 
my crime, or takes from me a particle of the hate- 
ful character inseparable from that crime. Why, 
even Pharaoh and Herod did not kill with their 
own handjS. The Jewish rahhle, who so cruelly 
stoned Stephen to death, were, indeed, murderers; 
but, were not the high priests and elders, who 
stirred the rabble up and urged them to the deed, 
murderers also ? The actual putting of Jesus 
Christ to death was committed by the Roman 
soldiers; but, though they were murderers, was 
not Pilate also a murderer, he w^ho placed the 
victim in their hands, and ordered them to nail him 
to the cross ? And was the crime of this base and 
corrupt judge washed away by the water in that 
hypocritical ceremony, wherein he affected sorrow, 
and laid, as he appeared to hope, the shedding of inno- 
cent blood upon the head of the Jews ; the head of 
those despicable wretches, who were under Jais abso- 



t30 

lute coiitroul, and whom he treated, in all other cases, 
as the slaves of the conqnerer whose deputy he was? 
But, in order to constitute murder, it is not ne- 
cessary, that a positive order, or a direct instiga- 
tion, pass from the chief murderer to his agent. To 
have a clear right to charge a man with murder, 
we may stop far short of proofs of this description. 
To connive at unjust killing ; to be known to wish 
for it even ; either of these is sufficient to constitute 
murder. Henry the Second did not order the kill- 
ing of the Bishop of Canterbury ; he instigated, di- 
rectly, no one to commit the deed. But, it was 
known that he wished the death of that prelate; the 
prelate was killed ; and, in the end, the King per- 
formed the most humiliating penance as a murder- 
er. Ahab did not order the death of Naboth. 
He instigated nobody Xo kill him. He merel}^ when 
Naboth was dead, suffered the deed to remain un- 
punished, and took possession of the vine3^ard which 
he was known to covet. Yet, the instant he enter- 
ed on that possession, the punishment due to the 
murderer was pronounced upon him by the lips of 
the prophet : " Hast thou killed and also taken pos- 
session ? Thus saith the Lord, in the place where 
dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick thy 
blood, even thine." The effeminate, the luxurious, 
the unprincipled and unfeeling king seems to hq^ve 
been stricken with fear ; for he exclaimed, " Hast 
thou found me, O mine enemy !" Found thee, yes 1 
What ! didst thou think, that, because thou hadst 
been wallowing in ease and luxury, while thy cor- 
rupt nobles and judges were falsely accusing, were 
condemning on the oaths of perjured witnesses, 
were killing in the most cruel manner the innocent 
owner of the vineyard which thy whim or fancy 
had fi:j^d on; didst thou think that because thy 



AGAINST MURDERERS. 131 

cowardice had restrained thee from shedding thy 
subjects' blood with thine own hands, thou wast not 
his murderer ! 

Find him! Yes; and, let every murderer, who 
commits his bloody deeds by the hands vf others, 
bear in mind the punishment of this luxurious, cruel 
and dastardly king. Even his family were to be 
wholly cut off " Him that dieth of Ahab in the 
city, dogs shall eat ; and him that dieth in the field 
shall the fowls of the air eat." 1 Kings, ch. xxi, 
^er. 24. We find in Holy Writ, denunciations 
against murderers of no other description so awful 
as those against this murderer by deputy. And when 
we come duly to consider the matter, the crime well 
merited this distinction. Ahab was the chief ma- 
gistrate. It was his duty, in return for the ease and 
splendour that he enjoyed, to watch without ceasing 
over the property and lives of his subjects. He had, 
in this case, seized on the former and destroyed the 
latter. So far from punishing the murder of his in- 
nocent subject, he had applauded it ; not, indeed, in 
direct terms ; he had not openly thanked the mur- 
derers ; but, those thanks were too clearly inferred 
from his silence on the subject, and from his eager- 
ly profiting from the death of the murdered party. 
It was his duty, his bounden duty, to punish the 
murderers ; and by that means to prevent, as far as 
in him lay, murders in future. He had ample pow- 
er to do this : and, therefore, in addition to the crime 
of this murder, there was on his head that of caus- 
ing other murders, that of giving his royal counte- 
nance to the commission of this horrible crime. 
And how was he to be suitably punished without 
extending the punishment to the whole of his wick- 
ed race? The streets of the city had been stained with 
the blood of his innocent and virtuous subje^; dogs 



132 

had licked kis blood, and dogs were to lick the blood 
of Ahab ; but, the blood of this contemptible being 
alone was not sufficient to satisfy divine vengeance, 
w^hich was therefore extended to his very race. 

The laws of God are very minute in discrimina- 
ting between different degrees of crime. Some crimes 
are to be atoned for without the loss of life ; but, the 
murderer is always positively excluded from any 
and from all mitigation of punishment. " Moreo- 
ver, ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a 
murderer which is guilty of death, but he shall 
be surely put to death.'''' The sin of king Ahab 
was, therefore, enormous ; he was a murderer, and 
3.]so 3, screener of murderers. The authority and 
power, with which he had been invested for the 
protection of the lives of his subjects, he made use 
of to protect their murderers : and, what good man 
does not rejoice when he hears the detected and 
alarmed tyrant exclaim : " Hast thou found me /" 
What a warning to those, in whatever state of life 
they may be placed, who commit this horrid deed 
by the hands of others, and who indulge the hope 
of escaping punishment because their own hands 
have not been imbrued in the victim's blood ! 

But, to merit the punishment due to the mur- 
derer, it is not necessary that we profit from the 
deed, or that we wish it to be committed. Not to 
punish it, if we have the power, makes us partakers 
in the crime, which we commit also, if we, by what- 
over means, endeavour to screen the actual mur- 
derer ; for, in either of these cases we adopt the 
crime ; we take it to our bosoms ; we commit it in 
our hearts. The Governor of Pennsylvania, who 
pardoned two wilful and cruel murderers on their 
way from the scene of their conviction to the jail 
door, was, indeed, less horribly criminal than Ahab ; 



AGAINST MURDERERS. 133 

but, did he not adopt their bloody deed ; and did he 
not become a participator in their crime? If 
we know of a murder having been committed, 
and make it not known to those who have the pow- 
er of punishment in their hands, we are deemed, 
even according to human laws, participators in the 
crime. What, then, must be the guilt of those who 
possess that power, if they themselves screen the 
murderer ; if they make use of their power to se- 
cure his impunity, instead of insurmg his punish- 
ment ! 

Let them not flatter themselves, that they deceive 
even man, much less God, by giving the name of 
mercy to this perversion of their power. Mercy 
must operate to prevent severity ; and what is so se- 
vere as the murderer's deeds, which must necessa- 
rily be encouraged and increased by even the hope 
of finding protection, where, according to all laws, 
human and divine, punishment signal and certain 
ought to be their reward ? To encourage murder, 
in any shape or in any degree, is to be guilty of 
cruelty unqualified ; to screen the murderer is to 
give that encouragement; it is to call aloud for the 
use of the dagger, the knife, the poisoned bowl, and 
the mid-night torch ; and, if it be possible to add to 
such a crime, the addition can be made only by com- 
mitting the crime under the hypocritical pretext of 
shewing mercy. 

Those murders, however, which are the most 
worthy of our attention and watchfulness, are such 
as elude, in most cases, the eye of man, and admit 
of no proof sufficient to make the offender amena- 
ble to human laws. If St. Paul had died in prison, 
or had been drowned at sea while a prisoner, would 
not the Roman governors have been murderers ? 
The effect being distant from the cau'se, we are 
12 



134 

too apt to lose sight of the crime ; but, Paul having 
been held in bonds wnjustly, his death, during the 
time that he was in those bonds, would have made 
his persecutors, and especially those who had un- 
justly imprisoned him, murderers. We should, 
therefore, look well to our ways, when, by any 
means we acquire power to do any thing, which, 
even by possibility, may affect the lives of our 
neighbours. If from false witness, or from per- 
verted law, our neighbour lose his life, though the 
immediate cause of death be distant from us, the 
false witnesses or the unjust judges are murderers, 
and murderers, too, wilful and deliberate. It is no 
excuse to gay, that they did not mean actually to 
kill the victim. So says the night-robber, when, in 
a struggle for the gold, he kills the owner. He 
only wanted the gold, he did not want the owner's 
life. But, so far is the law from countenancing 
such an excuse, that, in the act of breaking in by 
night, it presumes, as a matter of course, the design 
to kill, and it justly inflicts the punishment of death 
accordingly, which punishment, even by the hands 
of the owner himself, is justified by the laws of 
God. 

Now, night-robbery is by no means so base an 
act, so deliberately and manifestly foul and wicked^ 
as the giving of false witness, or the pronouncing 
of an unjust judgment. And, though the effect may 
not be immediate death, and may not produce death 
at all ; still the crime admits of no extenuation : 
for, what are the natural consequences of banish- 
ment, or seclusion, from friends, wife, children, pa- 
rents, and all that renders life dear to manl If 
the natural and almost unavoidable consequences 
are disease, despair, torment of mind, death, or in- 
sanity, worse than death itself, how aie the guilty 



AGAINST MURDERERS. 135 

parties to hope to escape that vengeance which is 
the murderer'' s due? Let all those, therefore, who 
have any portion of power to exercise over the lives 
of their neighbours, look well to what they do in 
that capacity ; and not from indolence or from fear 
of man, do that which may subject him to the awful 
consequences of a misuse of that power. Let them 
remember, that, though their ears are not to be 
annoyed by the plaintive accents of their unfortu- 
nate fellow-creature, whose living body they have 
condemned to a grave, those accents will find their 
way to that God of justice who has vengeance in 
his hands, and who has declared that the murderer 
shall not see everlasting life. 

If such, if so scrupulous, ought to be our conduct 
towards our neighbour, that is to say, towards men 
in general, what ought our conduct to be towards 
those more immediately dependent upon us, and 
those connected with us by ties of blood or of con- 
tract, and whose lives depend, in many cases, upon 
our doing our duty by them, and whose death is 
the probable consequence of a neglect of that duty? 
When those, Avhom to supply with food and rai- 
ment is our duty as masters or as persons having 
the guardianship of the indigent committed to our 
care; when those persons die from want, can we 
deceive ourselves so far as to believe that we are 
not murderers, that is to say, if we have withheld 
from them that which was necessary to sustain life ? 
When, from harsh and repulsive conduct in us, we 
have m.ade the hapless creatures afraid to put forth 
a statement of their wants ; when we have, from 
accompanying our scanty relief with reproaches, if 
not with blows, driven the distressed mortals to 
wander from door to door, and, at last, to expire 
under hedges or upon the pavement of the city ; or. 



136 

to use their small remains of strength and of intel- 
lect in satisfying the cravings of hunger by force 
or by fraud, and, thereby, bringing themselves to 
an ignominious death ; when either of these is the 
result of the non-performance of our duty, let us not 
deceive ourselves by not tracing the effect back to 
the cause ; for, in the latter case the offence against 
the law is ours and not theirs; and in both cases, 
wherever death is the effect of our misconduct, 
though the laws of man cannot reach us, the laws 
of God declare us to be murderers ; seeing that 
this case is precisely that which is in the contem- 
plation of the Psalmist, when he says, that '^the 
wicked murders the innocent, that his eyes are 
jtrivily set ■against the poor; that he slays the 
widow and the stranger, and murders the father- 
less;" he evidently does not allude to murders 
committed by the sword or by the knife ; but to 
those unseen killings, which are effected by the 
unjust and cruel denying of food and raiment to 
the indigent part of our fellow-creatures ; and to 
which food and raiment they are as much entitled 
as the rich man is to his houses and lands. 

The wretched and forlorn creature, brought 
down to the grave by disease engendered from a 
want of the necessaries of life, is but too generally 
regarded as having expired from a natural cause. 
The real cause is so distant from the effect, that it 
is not perceived, even by the unfortunate victim 
himself But that cause is not hidden from the 
eyes of God, who, by the mouths of his servants 
and prophets and apostles, from, one end of the 
Bible to the other, Vv^arns the ri^h, and all persons 
in authority, against oppressions and neglect of the 
poor. Against doing any thing that has a tendency 
to humble, to harass, and to injure them. So com- 



AGAINST TVrURDERERS. 137 

plete is the word of God as to this point, that, though 
it strictly forbids stealing, it says expressly, in 
Proverbs, ch. vi. ver. 30, " Men do not despise a 
thief if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hun- 
gry.''^ This law is not in operation, where the 
rich from their superabundance are ready to satisfy 
the calls of hunger in the poor ; and especially 
where the law of the land, as is the case with us, 
benignant] y provides sustenance for every human 
being in a destitute state. But, this benignant law 
must be faithfully executed by those in whose hands 
the execution is lodged; or, it becomes, not a pro- 
tection to the poor, but the means of most grievoils 
oppression, of endless diseases, of sufferings not to 
be described, of deaths premature, and innumera- 
ble ; and, let not those deceive themselves, who are 
the original cause of these melancholy effects; for, 
when a human being dies in consequence of a want 
of that timely relief which has been refused him, a 
murder has been committed, and those who have 
refused the relief are murderers. 

The apostle says that he who is hard-hearted to 
his own kindred is worse than a heathen. He 
might have said, and with great truth, worse than 
any brute beast of which we have any knowledge. 
The parent that can so act towards a child as to 
produce its death, whether by want of care, want 
of good counsel, want of food, of raiment, of any 
thing within the power of that parent to supply, 
must be little short of what we generally describe 
by the word monster. In this case even slight 
negligences are criminal. What is merely fault 
in other cases is here crime. The duty of the 
parent commences from the moment that the fruit 
of gratification sees the light ; and it never ceases 
but with the life of one or the other of the parties. 
12* 



138 god's vengeance 

We have, however, instances now and then, not 
only of a most profligate neglect of these duties ; * 
but of acts committed by parents towards children 
such as it is impossible to hear of without a mixture 
of indignation and horror. To abandon a child, 
in a state of known peril ; to leave that child to the 
mercy of strangers, and, perhaps, enemies ; to leave 
a child to be comforted in its dying moments by 
those wholly unconnected with it by ties of blood ; 
to suffer it, and wilfully suffer it, to sink into the 
grave, without the touch of one kindred hand, with- 
out hearing the sound of one kindred voice ; to 
know that it is in imminent peril, and coolly to pur- 
sue one's ordinary avocations, expecting every mo- 
ment to hear that the victim is in its shroud ; this, 
this of all the offences of which a parent can be 
guilty ; of all the crimes w^hich can lie upon his 
head, is surely the greatest; and, whatever such 
parents may think ; however completely the laws 
of man may be inapplicable to his case, that he is 
a murderer, and the basest and amongst the black- 
est of murderers, the laws of God sufficiently pro- 
claim. 

The duties of parents and children are recipro- 
cal. These latter must consider all their words 
and actions, J as they affect their parents. A bad 
child, is not only a bad man or woman ; is not only 
guilty of offences against society ; but, moreover, 
of a particular offence against the parents. If the 
parents have faithfully discharged their duty, how 
great is the crime of the son, for instance, who, by 
his conduct, wilfully gives them pain 1 And yet, 
how many fathers', and, more especially, how many 
mothers' grey hairs are brought with sorrow to the 
grave by the misconduct, the perverseness, the pro- 
fligacy, the drunkenness or some other incurable 



AGAINST MURDERERS. 139 

vice of a son ! Here there is not only the basest 
of ingratitude ; but a want of feeling : a want of 
the very essentials of human nature. For what 
must that breast be made of that can be insensible 
to the anguish occasioned in the mind of a mother 
by one over whose life, health and, happiness that 
mother has watched with an anxiety ten thousand 
times greater than that which she has ever had for 
her own life? Can such a son see his mother on 
the death-bed to which he himself has hastened her 
without saying, " I am a murderer !" 

It is a poor paltering with his conscience, to say 
that he neither stabbed her, poisoned her, nor 
wished for her death. He knows, that the mental 
affliction, the harassing cares, the incessant alarms, 
the constant state of uncertainty and irritation, the 
grief, the mortification and torment which he has 
occasioned, have done the deed. He has occasioned 
in some cases a dread of poverty and ruin ; in 
other cases humiliations too great to be patiently 
borne ; and in every case that worse than viper's 
sting, the sting of filial ingratitude. For such a 
son to weep over the corpse of his mother is no 
compensation ; forms no atonement for his conduct ; 
his crime remains the same, simply with the addi- 
tion of hypocrisy to his other detestable offence. 

Still, however, there is one case, which sometimes 
presents itself in the conduct of profligate and cruel 
men, which if possible, surpasses in enormity that 
of the ungrateful and murderous son; namely, the 
cool, premeditated, persevering and inexorable cru- 
elty of husband towards wife. Here, there is every 
thing that is binding upon man. The law gives 
him such ample powers of controul with regard to 
the wife, that there is absolutely no excuse for any 
thing that can justify or apologize for cruelty on his 



140 god's vengeance 

part at any subsequent stage of the connexion. He 
can plead no injuries from caprices, which he has it 
not in his power constantly to controul. There can 
be no extravagance, no expensive follies, which he 
has it not completely in his power instantly to check, 
if not wholly to prevent. For every deviation from 
the path of fidelity the law gives him not only effectu- 
al but speedy redress. It is in fact a creature of more 
delicate frame, of quicker sensibility, of feelings 
more tender and more ardent, placed under his ab- 
solute guidance and command. One, moreover, 
that he has selected by himself, or received with his 
assent. The connexion is so strictly personal as 
to admit of no adequate description; and the fate, 
the happiness or misery (for there is no medium) 
of this being is so completely within his power, that 
it appears next to impossible that he can have any 
ground of complaint, not, in a greater or less degree, 
ascribable to some act or some omission of his own. 
These things duly considered we must know the 
fact ; we must see the proofs with our own eyes or 
hear them with our own ears to believe it possible, 
that there are men capable of being guilty of 
deliberate, malicious barbarity toAvards a wife. 
Yet, unhappily, such things we do sometimes 
witness. The story of Amnon and Tamar pre- 
sents us with a true picture of human brutality. 
The first act of this profligate man was .suffi- 
ciently detestable; but, vv^hen he drives the dis- 
consolate damsel from his presence ; when he bids 
his servant rudely to push her from the door, 
the blood boils in our veins and we wish the 
savage ruffian upon the spot that we might instant- 
ly inflict upon him some deadly blow, as the best 
vengeance we can take in behalf of the injured 
lady. Well might she say, " This evil in sending 



AGAINST MURDERERS. 141 

me away is greater than the other thou didst unto 
me. But he would not hearken unto her. Then 
he called his servant that ministered unto him, and 
said, Put now this woman out from me, and bolt 
the door after her. And Tamar put ashes on her 
head, and rent her garment of divers colours that 
was on her, and laid her hand on her^ head, and 
went on crying." 2 Sam. ch. xiii. ver. 16 — 19. 
This picture, of brutality on the one side, and of 
distress on the other, excites feelings which the 
tongue cannot express. We thirst for vengeance 
on the unnatural, the cold-blooded offender; and 
when we come to the 29th verse of the same chap- 
ter, and see Amnon assassinated by men provided 
for the purpose by the brother of the injured 
Tamar, we cannot forbear to exult at the perpetra- 
tion of the deed, black in itself, and, under ordinary 
circumstances, calculated to fill us with horror. 

Brutal, however, as was the conduct of Amnon^ 
can less be said of the conduct of any husband who 
treats a wife after the same manner? 

If, in the union of the parties a sacrifice has been 
made to considerations of wealth, of ambition or of 
any other object, the attainment of which was 
thought desirable, there is, at least, a contract the 
most solemn, a vow the most awful, that the man 
will love, cherish and honour the wife. To make 
her an}'- thing approaching a compensation for the 
surrender of her freedom and her person, for the 
surrender indeed of every thing but life itself, de- 
mands the complete and literal fulfilment of this vow 
on the part of the husband. What then must the 
man be, who can act the part of Amnon, even after 
he has voluntarily bound himself by the marriage 
vow? nay, who can do even more than it was in the 
power of Amnon to do; who can keep the wretched 



142 god's vengeance 

wife bound by her vows to the end of her life; 
leave her exposed to every species of calumny; 
hold her up as a mark for the scorn of the unfeel- 
ing and the suspicion of the uncharitable; while he 
himself, a libertine at large, sets at defiance morality 
and religion, and makes a merit of that profligate 
demeanour, the bare suspicion of which is regarded 
as sufficient to sink his wife into infamy? 

It is possible, that cases may arise, when the 
incompatibility of temper is so great as to render a 
dissolution of the connexion a matter of mutual 
relief. This must be an extreme case, indeed; for, 
contracts of no sort are made to be broken, and 
especially contracts of so solemn a character. Be- 
fore such a contract can be infringed on in the 
smallest degree, every effort should be made to 
prevent it ; and in no case, except that of an appeal 
to the law, should such infringement originate with 
the man, who is not only the most powerful of the 
parties, but Avho can suffer nothing from the change, 
while the^wife must, in a greater or less degree, be 
a suflerer to the end of her life. 

At any rate, the unhappy circumstance having 
occurred, nothing should be done to add to her 
unavoidable affliction. In short, w^hether, in this 
way or in any other, a husband is guilty of cruelty 
towards a wife, he is fully answerable in the eyes 
of God for all the effects of that cruelty. In the 
eyes of man, too, however ineffectual the law may 
be to reach him, he wall not go wholly free from 
punishment. Persevering malignity towards one 
to whom we have vowed constant affection for life, 
is, in the first place, a scandalous breach of fidelity. 
Such a man may talk of honour ; but the honour 
which he possesses would be a disgrace to honest 
men. His conduct is that of a barbarian and a 



AGAINST MURDERERS. 143 

coward. To strike a woman ; to lift the cane, or 
draw the sword against her, would consign any 
man to infamy; but, to do this is far short in point 
of cowardice as well as of cruelty to the treating 
of her in a manner that is constantly harassing to 
her mind, that humbles her in the eyes of her 
neighbours, and makes her ashamed of her situa- 
tion, that robs her of all the pleasures of life, and 
that hastens the termination of that life. To do 
this, deliberately and coolly to persevere in such a 
line of conduct bespeaks a heart destitute of every 
generous sentiment, seliish, cold and base; and if 
the possessor of that heart escape chastisement 
from the hand of man, let him remember that there 
is a God to punish the violater of vows and the 
murderer of the innocent. Let him not put forward 
his paltry defence, that he did not use the dagger 
or the poison. It is he who sends the dagger to 
the heart: it is he who administers the poison ; and, 
as in the case of the profligate and ungrateful son, 
he is guilty of a murder a million times more 
heinous than that of slaying a man capable of com- 
bating against him. There is a meanness in cruelty 
towards a wife that is more odious and more detesta- 
ble than any other quality, which, perhaps, it is possi- 
ble for man to attribute to man. It far surpasses the 
drawing of a sword upon a woman, or the smiting 
of her on the cheek. It sinks man beneath every 
thing appertaining even to the lowest and most 
degraded state of humanity; and when we con- 
template it we can hardly persuade ourselves that 
we are looking at the conduct of any thing that 
bears the name of man. The wretch would almost 
appear to be beneath the notice of his Creator. 

Thank God, this species of offence, this kind of 
human depravity^ but rarely makes its appearance 



144 THE GAMESTER. 

in the world. Amongst other murderers, howere? 
the barbarous husband was not to be omitted, lest it 
should be supposed that this enormous sin had not 
awarded to it a suitable punishment. It is these 
unseen, these disguised murders, that are most 
wgrthy of our attention. For the common cut- 
throat, the laws of every country provide speedy 
reprobation and punishment; but, the secret, the 
disguised, the slow-moving, the persevering, the 
smiling murderer is to be punished, in this world, 
only by the just opinions, the deep hatred, and the 
general execration of mankind; to form, therefore, 
those opinions, to entertain that hatred and to pour 
forth those execrations is a sacred duty towards 
God and towards our neighbour. 



THE GAMESTER. 



" Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour."— Levit. ch. xix. 
ver. 13. 



Various are the modes which bad men pursue 
in order to possess themselves unjustly of that 
which belong to others. These modes may be 
classed under three general heads, which, each 
having its different degrees of guilt, are usually 
denominated, rohhery, theft, and fraud. When the 
act is perpetrated by open violence, it is robbery; 
where it conceals itself under the garb of secrecy, 
it is theft; where the act itself is done with the 



THE GAMESTER. 145 

knowledge of the party injured, (though, by means 
of falsehood and deceit, the intent and end are dis- 
guised from him,) it is fraud. 

The inventions of the fraudulent mind are innu- 
merable. False pretences of all sorts present them- 
selves to it in succession. Feigned distress, feigned 
friendship, false accounts, false vouchers, forgery, 
pretended piety, and even pretended love. But, 
perhaps, of all the fraudulent practices of which we 
have any knowledge, those of the gamester are the 
most odious in themselves, and most baneful in 
their consequences ; and, if upon examination, we 
find this to be the case, it is, surely, our duty, not 
only to refrain from gaming ourselves, but, accord- 
Jttig to the degree of our power to prevent it in others^ 
and especially in those who may be under our con- 
troul, or who are likely to be influenced by our ex- 
ample. 

Gaming is sometimes called play; but, w^hat is it 
:n reality ? What is the object of every gamester ? 
It is to gain by the loss of another. The object is 
not to effect an exchange of one thing for another. 
It is not to render value for value, in any way or 
under any form. The object of every gamester is, 
to get by doing injury to his neighbour. It is 
to get his money or goods from him without 
yielding him any thing in return ; and this, dis- 
guise it under what name we may, is extortion and 
fra,ud. 

This is not less its character because it as ofter^ 
fail of success as it succeeds in its purpose. The 
thief is not less a thief when he fail than when he 
succeed. It is the intention in both cases that con* 
stitutes the crime ; and, as to the chance that yon 
give your neighbour, you think that it is not so good 
as yo%r chance ; for, this is the Yeiy principle upoB 
13 



146 THE GAMESTER. 

which you proceed. This thought must necessa- 
rily exist in your mind, or you are destitute of mo- 
tive altogether. You conceal from your neighbour 
the fact, that you have reason for expecting to get 
his money from him. You practice deceit from the 
first to the last ; and your sole object is your own 
private gain to be effected by his loss. 

Pretenders to religion, who are at the same time 
gamesters, are by no means few in number. If, in* 
stead of persecuting their neighbours for difference 
of opinion on points of doctrine, they were them- 
selves to pay attention to the uniform language of 
Scripture on the subject of deceit, and especially of 
deceit practised for the purpose of unjustly extort- 
ing from our neighbour his money or goods, they 
would, perhaps, cease both to game and persecute. 
In Leviticus, ch. iv. the law is clearly laid down. 
We are, in no case, to deceive oar neighbour ; and, 
if we have gotten any thing from him deceitfully, 
we are to restore it to him with a fifth part in addi- 
tion ; and, then, atonement being made, forgiveness 
is to be obtained. 

Now, the very essence of gaming is deceit. It 
is impossible to gain, except deceitfully ; for there 
is deceit in the motive. And, as to the manner of 
accomplishing the end, it presents, perhaps, the 
strongest possible proof of meanness and baseness 
of mind. Feigned pleasure, feigned sorrow, feigned 
applause and feigned reproof: all is false: looks 
that lie, the lies being too refined to be trusted to 
the tongue. And all this for the base purpose of 
gain at your neighbour's expense, and possibly by 
means of his ruin ! From such a school, who is 
to expect sincerity, uprightness, or even common 
humanity? Accordingly, it is invariably found, 
that gamesters are amongst the most unfeeling us 



THE GAMESTER. 147 

well as the most fraudulent of mankind. In Vir- 
ginia and the slave-states of America, nothing is 
more common than to see the gamester whose purse 
has been eMiptied, call in a domestic slave, man, 
woman, or c^ild, as a stake to be played for against 
a sum of money. Thus the drawing of a card, or 
the turning of a die, may, and frequently does, se- 
parate instantly, and for ever, wife from husband, 
and child from parents ! Look at the poor crea- 
ture that stands trembling by, awaiting the result of 
the game ; and then find, if you can, words to ex- 
press your abhorrence of those who can give to a 
deed like this the appellation of play ! 

In this country, indeed, the gamester, thanks to 
the laws which we inherit from our brave and just 
forefathers, cannot make the stake consist of human 
flesh and blood. But, amongst its consequences, 
gaming never fails to bring want of feeling towards 
others. The mind, constantly agitated by selfish 
hopes and selfish fears, has no time to bestow on 
country, friends, parents, or children. The pride 
of ancestry, the inheritance of successors ; the past, 
the future, and even the present, even ordinary 
pleasures of the day, have no attractions for the 
gamester : nay, as thousands of instances have 
proved, love itself, the great conqueror of the human 
heart, is compelled to yield to the cards and dice ; 
for, all-powerful as that passion is in every other 
case, here it tries its powers in vain. 

Hence it is, and many are unfortunate enough to 
know the fact by experience, gamesters are the 
most unsocial, cheerless and gloomy of mortals. 
They appear constantly lost in care. They are 
plotting against others, or, are absorbed in reflections 
on their own losses. A want of afl^ection for others, 
brings in time its natural return j and, at the end of 



148 THE GAMESTER. 

a few years, men, or women, of this description be- 
come objects of contempt, or, at least, of indiffer- 
ence with all around them. 

Accustomed to practice deceit; ir^pincerity be- 
coming habitual to him; the gamester suspects every 
one, confides in no one, and is completely excluded 
from that inexpressible pleasure and advantage 
which good and generous minds derive from the 
placing of unlimited confidence in friends. Confi- 
dence, to be real, must be mutual ; and, as the game- 
ster never confides, so, no one confides in him. In- 
deed, his very habits render him unworthy of trust 
or belief What he calls his flay is a regular 
practising of fraud. His success depends wholly 
on ability in deceiving. Even the language of the 
gaming-table, the very terms of his art, are such 
as to render the commission of fraud familiar to his 
mind. Shuffle — cut — trick ; words which express 
the divers acts that he performs, and all indicating 
something in the way of lying, or cheating, or 
both. 

To expect to find an honest man in a gamester 
would be as absurd as to seek for a virgin in the 
stews. If we have dealings, or contracts, of any 
sort with him, what is to be expected of him but 
irick and shuffle 1 And, besides, the habitual de- 
sire of unjust gain brings him under the old and 
infallible maxim, that a covetous man cannot he ho- 
nest. Moreover, his necessities at times are such 
as to bear down every moral principle before them ; 
necessities, too, on account of which he merits no 
compassion ; arising, as they do, not out of his ge- 
nerosity or liberality, as it frequently happens in 
other men, but out of his sordidness, his greediness 
of gain, his eagerness unjustly to possess himself of 
the property of his neighbour. 



THE GAMESTER. 149 

From a gamester never expect useful exertion in 
any profession, calling, or state of life. To fortune, 
by honourable means, the path is scarcely ever 
smooth, and the progress is seldom rapid. The 
competition is so great, so numerous are the rivals, 
that nothing short of presumption will place reli- 
ance on any thing but time and perseverance. 
But, v^rill the gamester rely on these? Will he, 
the very habit of whose mind is hostile to all steady 
pursuits ; will he, who seeks fortune after fortune 
gained by a single twirl of the dice-box, ever be 
brought to place reliance on patient toil or study ? 
Very great has been, and still is, the injury to pub- 
lic morals and private happiness, arising from the 
conducting of the affairs of commerce, in a mode 
bearing some resemblance to gaming. Fortunes 
in great numbers, suddenly acquired, are always 
injurious to a nation. The labourer who sees his 
companion of last year riding in his carriage this 
year, will be very apt to grow weary of his spade 
or his plough. The orange-boy, who, having lost 
sight of another orange-boy for a few years, finds 
him again the owner of a lordly mansion and park, 
will naturally feel no motive to perseverance. 
These discouraged parties will overlook the act, 
that thousands have fallen in attempting to keep 
pace with the lucky adventurers. Those who fall, 
who and whose families are merely lifted up to be 
dashed down, are not seen: they sink out of sight 
for ever. The fortunate only remain to be objects of 
envy, while the whole mass, if they could be all seen 
at once, would present a most salutary warning. 

Thus is it with the gamester. The fortunate 
only does he keep in view. Self-love is constantly 
instilling into his mind, that he ought to be as for- 
tunate as they. He looses all relish for any thing 
13* 



150 THE GAMESTER. 

slow in its operation and not attended with enor- 
mous gains. Stake after stake are snatched from 
him : baffled in all his attempts : utterly incapable 
of honest exertion, he but too frequently resorts to 
villany of a more vulgar description and more 
tangible by the law. 

How numerous are the instances, wherein crimes 
the most henious have been committed for the pur- 
pose of obtaining the means of pursuing gaming, 
or, for that of making up for losses sustained at the 
gaming table ! Masters defrauded by apprentices 
and clerks ; defaulters defrauding the public ; for- 
geries innumerable on friends as v/ell as others ; 
children stealing from their parents ; theft and 
robbery in all their various forms ; murder aggra- 
vated by every crueky, and acts of suicide without 
end ! These, O cards and dice, are your works ! 
And yet, not yours ; but the works of those law- 
givers, magistrates, and parents, who, deaf alike to 
the commands of God and the cries of nature, 
neglect the most sacred of all their duties. 

The nature of gaming is notorious ; notorious is 
its inevitable tendency ; and its fatal effects are 
constantly before our eyes. It is, surely, then, the 
duty of us all to exert, according to our several 
stations and capacities, our best means of prevent- 
ing, or, at least, of checking the growth of, so great 
an evil. As to lawgivers and magistrates, if it is 
their duty "to watch over our public morals f if 
it be their duty to punish a man with uncommon 
severity for questioning the truth of those doctrines, 
a belief in which they hold to be conducive to pub- 
lic morals and happiness; if it be their duty to 
scourge with rods of iron the man who attempts to 
disturb a belief in that which they hold to be ne- 
cessary to prevent the commission of crimes ; if it 



THE GAMESTER. 151 

be their duty to do these things, can it be less their 
duty to allot equal severity to those who are guilty 
of what is odiously immoral in itself, which natu- 
rally and necessarily produces a multitude of the 
most heinous crimes, which crimes are daily and 
hourly traced back directly from the gallows to the 
gaming table ? 

It is, however, lamentable to perceive, that, in 
this case, the magistrate is but seldom a terror to 
evil-doers ; that the great are but too often an ex- 
ample to the little in this disgraceful particular ; 
that associations for the openly avowed purpose of 
gaming, exist in numerous places, and consist, in 
part, at least, of those whose bounden duty it is to 
punish the very offence that they are daily in the 
act of committing ; and, which is still more odious, 
that, on the other side of the Atlantic as well as on 
this, a youth can appear in scarcely any town, vil- 
lage, or street, without receiving a pressing invita- 
tion to game for the benefit of the state ! The 
Christian Bishop, who derived a considerable part 
of his revenue from licenses granted to the stew5 
in his dominions, certainly yields the palm of pre- 
eminent turpitude to those pretenders to purity, who 
raise money by lottery for the building of schools 
and churches. 

But, let governments and the great act as they 
may, we, as individuals, have a duty to perform. 
As neighbours, as individuals, as masters, as pa- 
rents, we are bound to exert ourselves to the utmost 
for the preventing of the scandalous and ruinous 
practice of gaming. And, here, we cannot but la- 
ment, that but too many of those, whose immediate 
and special duty it is to inculcate sound principles 
of morality ; that those, whose office and functions 
give them such great and general influence, seldom 



152 THE GAMESTER. 

speak of this crime in a very decided tone of re- 
probation. They qualify too much. They make 
exceptions. The impression Ihey leave on the 
minds of their flock is, that the thing is not wicked 
in itself; and that it is merely capable of being 
applied to wicked purposes. And, where is the 
thing, however good and praiseworthy in itself, of 
\vhich the same may not be said? The same may ^ 
be said of every art and science ; the same may be 
said of know^ledge, talent, genius and even of re- 
ligion itself All may be perverted to bad pur- 
poses ; but, still, we are not to decry knowledge, 
talent, genius and religion ; and, therefore, we are 
not to decry gaming. 

This is the conclusion to which the hearers of 
the mitigating moralist are led; and thus, the thing 
not being held to be wicked in itself it is still prac- 
tised, still taught, and it still goes on producing all 
its natural consequences. Even he, who has been 
called " our greoA national moralist,''^ the statue of 
whom, as such, was the first to be placed in the 
metropolitan cathedral, who was so rigid as to mat- 
ters of doctrine and discipline, and so little lenient 
in cases where passions inseparable from our na- 
ture pleaded in behalf of the offender ; even this, 
the most rigid and mostgloomy of moralists, has his 
qualifications upon the subject of this unmixed evil. 

To game he denominates " playing loantonly 
and extravagantly ior money P So that, according 
to him, it is not to game, unless the play be wan- 
ton, extravagant, and for money. Now, in another 
place, he tells us, that wantonly means 'sportively ; 
and that extravagantly means loastefully. So that, 
according to him, we may game, or play, provided 
we do not play sportively, or wastefully ! We 
must play soberly, seriously, prudently, and not 



THE GAMESTER. 153 

wastefully; which, if it be not directly to inculcate 
gaming in its worst sense and form, certainly has 
no tendency to discourage the growth of that prevq.* 
lent and destructive vice. 

The truth is, teachers of morals, who thus make 
a compromise with the vice, game themselves, and, 
therefore, dare not speak of it in the manner in 
which their duty demands. This "great national 
moralist," as he has been pompously called, gamed 
occasionally himself This was known in the cir- 
cle of his acquaintance, at any rate. He could not, 
therefore, condemn gaming altogether ; and was, 
for decency's sake, compelled to resort to qualifi- 
cations, to that which might form an excuse for 
his own conduct ; in short, to a compromise with 
that, against which it was his duty, as a professed 
moralist, to declare unmitigated and interminable 
war. 

Such, too, is the real cause of the hesitating, fal- 
tering, feeble language, as to this vice, of the clergy 
of the established church, in the far greater part of 
whose families cards and dice are constant inmates. 
Hence, when they condemn gaming (if they do it at 
all,) they make so many exceptions ; there is so 
much of mitigation mixed with the censure ; that 
the latter is overlooked, while the former is eagerly 
seized on. And yet, this mitigation is indispensa- 
ble; for, it would be too barefaced for a man to 
bestow unqualified reprobation on a vice, in the 
hearing of his servants, who had waited on him 
only a few hours before, while he was actually en- 
gaged in the commission of that very vice. And, 
even if he could find assurance sufficient for this, 
of what effect would be his reprobation, other than 
that of bringing on him the hatred and contempt 
due to the hypocrite ? 



154 THE GAMESTER. 

While it is notorious that gaming is practised 
in the parsonage-house, is it a wonder to find cards 
and dice at the inns, in the farmer's and trades- 
man's house, and in the cottage ? Is it a wonder 
to find gaming tables ready prepared at every great 
mart or other scene of bustle ? Is it a wonder that 
this vice continues to furnish an ample supply to 
the jail, the hulks and the gibbet ? 

But, still, here is no apology, much less a justi- 
fication, for individuals, who neglect their duty in 
this respect. Every man must, after all, be an- 
swerable for his own acts. Evil example, though 
it be a crime in him who gives it, is no justifica- 
tion of him who follows such example, in whatever 
degree it may operate in mitigation of his offence. 
And, indeed, we are seldom, when we come to years 
of maturity, deceived into vice. If misled at all, it 
is generally by the sophistry of our minds. If we 
do not wish to be deceived with regard to our 
moral duties, we seldom are deceived. 

Prevention, in the case before us, is more easy 
than in the case of any other vice. Here the pa- 
rent, ten thousand times for one, has complete and 
absolute power. Where nature is the powerful 
and ever-urgent prompter, the parent may find 
great difficulty in restraining his child. The pa»^ 
late, the appetite, the physical organization may 
have something to do with the beastly vices of 
drunkenness and gluttony. The sluggard's indul- 
gence is shameful and ruinous, but still it is only 
carrying to criminal excess that love of ease, which 
is natural to every creature. In all these cases, 
there is something for the parent to do, in order to 
prevent the vice. There is something in the way 
of restraint or force for him to employ. 

But gaming is a thing wholly unknown to na- 



THE GAMESTER. 155 

ture. It is prompted by no passion ; by no natural 
propensity of the mind, no feeling of the heart. No 
son can have a natural inclination to game, any 
more than he can have a natural inclination to 
make shoes. It is a thing that must be taught 
him ; and that, too, not without some considerable 
degree of pains. It is the art and mystery of get- 
ting possession of our neighbour's property without 
yielding him any thing in return. 

This art, too, is of a nature not to be taught by 
steoMh; not to be communicated in whispers; not 
to be clandestinely instilled. It must be taught 
openly, by repeated lessons, and repeated trials of 
the pupil's proficiency. The teaching too, must, to 
be successful, begin at an early age. In short, it 
must be under the parent's roof; he himself must 
be the preceptor, and the emulation nmst be awa- 
kened and kept alive by his own example. 

This is the point to which we come at last. 
This brings the matter home to every master and 
every parent, in one or the other of w^hich capaci- 
ties almost every man finds himself, at some time 
or other of his life. As to apprentices and servants, 
if they play at cards, dice, or any thing in the way 
of gaming, the master, and the master alone is to 
olame. For, he has only to forbid, and, in some 
way or other, to punish for 'disohedience. If in 
servants, dismission ; if in apprentices, the law 
awards corporal punishment. And, if the master 
neglect this duty towards them and towards soci- 
ety, he is entitled to no pity, and ought to have little 
redress from the law, if they defraud him of his 
money or his goods. He has suffered his house 
to be a seminary of deceit and fraud ; and, there- 
fore, the injury he complains of is the work of his 
own hands. He himself is the cause of the tempta- 



156 THE GAMESTER. 

tion to the crime ; and merits redress no more than 
the husband who should be base enough to assist 
in the seduction of his own wife. 

But, it is the parent, the gaming parent, he who, 
by precept or example, teaches his child the rudi- 
ments of this art and mystery of fraud and ruin; it 
is he who has the serious account to settle with his 
Maker. To be a gamester in his manhood, the 
son must have been taught when a child ; and the 
parent must have been the teacher. It is not pre- 
tended, that all who play have views positively 
fraudulent, nor is it pretended, that the example is 
always fatal. But, if only one cHild out of one 
hundred, or one thousand, be placed in the path of 
ruin by the parent, what a thought / What parent 
will dare to talk of religion, and, at the same time, 
voluntarily, and even with pains-taking, expose his 
child to the risk ! Will you give iiim to drink of 
a thing merely because that thm^ does not kill in 
all cases? Will you send him across a wilder- 
ness merely because some cross it without being 
devoured by wild beasts ? And, will you do these 
too, without any possible advantage in either case ? 

Yet, no better reason can be given for teaching 
your son the art of gaming, which, in addition to 
its other consequences, inevitably leads to late 
hours, and to all the habits and evils of sluggish- 
ness, ignorance and drunkenness. It is a thing 
bad in its very nature ; reason tells us that its direct 
tendency is to misery and infamy ; and daily and 
hourly experience most amply confirm her dictates. 
Unhappily she, in too many cases, gives us her 
warnings in vain, while the annals of the jail and 
the gibbet blazon forth the triumphs of gaming. 

The winning gamesters thoughts and feelings 
are but those of a successful, an undetected and 



THE GAMESTER. 157 

unpunished thief. The loser, the ruined, is abso- 
lutely without consolation. Losses arising from 

' other causes are accompanied with some mitigation. 
If caused by the oppression or injustice of others ; 
even if proceeding from our own. negligence or 
folly; we have, at least, the compassion of our 
friends, and can endure the comments of our minds. 
But, the ruined gamester has no resource, either 
from without or within. Contempt is all he can 
expect from the mass of mankind ; and, how is he 
to endure existence, when, amidst the scoffs of the 
world, he looks back on fortune lost by the throw 
of a die, and lost, too, in the base endeavour to pur- 
loin the fortune of another ! 

/ Disconsolate father ! Distracted mother ! You, 
who are smking into the earth over the corpse of 
a self-murdered gaming son ! There you behold 
the result of your own misconduct. It was you 
who created the fatal taste ; it was you who taught 
his little hands to shuffle and to trick : it was you 
who taught his infant looks to lie : it was you who 
implanted in his heart the love of enchanting fraud ! 
Take, then, your just reward: sorrow, remorse 
and shame, and constant fear for the remainder of 
your days, to hear even an allusion to him, who, 
but for your fault, might have been the comfort and 
pride of your lives, and have borne your name with 
honour to posterity ! 
U 



GOD'S VENGEANCE 
AGAINST PUBLIC ROBBERS. 



" But this is a people robbed and spoiled ; they are all of (hem 
Eiiared in holes, and they are hid in prison-houses : they are 
for a prey, and none dehvereth ; for a spoil, and none saith, 
Restore. Isaiah, chap, xlii, ver. 22. 

" And behold at evening tide trouble ; and before the morn- 
ing he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and 
the lot of them that rob us." Isaiah, chap. xvii. ver. 14. 



A PUBLIC ROBBER, or robbei of. the public, im 
one who robs the people of a country, community, 
ornation. We hear and read sermons enough on 
the wickedness of stealing from and robbing indi- 
viduals. The crimes of stealing privately in hou- . 
ses ; of breaking open dwellings to rob ; of robbery 
committed on the highway; of frauds committed 
on traders and others ; of making false writings for 
the purposes of fraud ; of embezzlement of the goods 
or money of employers; of marauding in gardens 
and fields ; and even of taking to our own use, in 
certain cases, wild anim.als, that have no owner, or 
proprietor at all : the sin of committing these crimes 
is frequently, though not too frequently, laid before 
us in colours the most odious, though not more 
odious than the nature and tendency of it cr^ll for. 

Those who reprobate acts of this description do 
right ; but, if, at the same time, they carefully ab- 
stain from all exposure of the nature of public rob- 
bery ; if they pass that over in silence, and espe- 
cially if they, by any means, either direct or indi- 
rect, give their sanction to, frame an excuse for, 



AGAINST PUBLIC ROBBERS. 159 

palliate in any degree, the deeds of the public rob- 
ber : if such be their conduct, they do wrong ; 
they are the enemies of mankind ; they are the foes 
of justice, morality and religion ; and to them ap- 
plies the question of th^ prophet Jeremiah, chap. 
vii. ver. 11. "Is this house, which is called hy 
my name, becon^e a den of robbers V To them, 
and to such a state of things, apply also the words 
of the prophet Ezekiel, in chap. xxii. beginning at 
ver. 27. " Her princes in the midst thereof are 
like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, to 
destroy souls, to get dishonest gain. And their 
pmiphets have daubed them with untem'pered mor- 
tar P Then the text goes on to speak of the rob- 
bery, vexation and oppression committed on the 
defenceless part of the people ; and it concludes 
with these ^»*^ords, which let peculators well remem- 
ber : *' Thf^refore have I poured out mine indigna- 
tion upon *hem, I have consumed them with the 
fire of my wrath : their own way have I recom- 
pensed upon their heads, saith the Lord God." 

The robber, be he of what description he may, is 
seldom at a loss for some excuse or other ; for a 
somethini[r in the way of comfort to lay to his soul ; 
for some plea or other wherewith to divert his 
mind and speak peace to his conscience. But, 
disguise ^.he thing how we may, all our receivings, 
other" tbnn those that come by free gift, or that 
proceed from value in some way or other, given or 
rendered in exchange, are dishonest receivings. If 
Ithey come with the knowledge and consent of the 
party, but in consequence of deceit practised on 
him, they are obtained by fraud : if taken from 
him without his knowledge, the act is stealing : if 
taken from him with his knowledge and without 
his consent, the act is robbery. And, can the evil 



160 god's vengeance 

be less, in the eye of reason or of religion, merely 
because the robbery is committed on many instead 
of one ? 

In the case of public robbery no particular suf- 
ferer is able to say what precise sum he has been 
robbed of by any particular robber in cases where 
there unhappily be many robbers : but, -does this 
wipe away the sin ? Are the robbers less robbers 
for this ? The man whose house has been robbed 
seldom knows precisely what he has lost, and, in 
many cases, never knows who the robbers are; 
yet, the the sin of robbery remains the same ; and, it 
remains the same, too, though the robbed person 
remain for ever unconscious of the robbery. 

The public robber, or robber of the people of a 
country, flatters himself with the excuse, that he 
knows not whom the money comes from ; but, does 
that make any difference in the nature of his of- 
fence? Nine times out of ten, the highway rob- 
ber knows not the person that he robs ; and so it 
frequently is with the thief or burglar. But, these 
all know well, that they rob somebody; and so 
does the man that robs the people. He knows that 
somebody must be the loser ; he knows, that he robs 
his neighbours, the people of the whole nation being, 
in a moral and religious sense, his neighbours; 
and he knows, that God has said, Leviticus, chap. 
XIX. ver. 13, " Thou shalt not rob thy neighbour." 

But, the grand plea of the public-robber is, that 
he takes nothing from any one ; that the thing is 
given to him hy those who do take it ; that it is given 
him in virtue of something called law ; that such 
taking away and such receiving have been going 
on for ages and ages ; and, lastly, that if he did 
not receive that which he does receive in this way, 
some other person would, ^ 



AGAINST PUBLIC ROBBERS. 161 

As to the first of these, the highway robber may 
say as much ; for in fact, it is the pistol and not 
he, that empties the frightened traveller's purse ; 
and the murderer would have as good a defence, 
if he laid the bloody deed upon the dagger. But, 
in some cases, and even in the most flagrantly 
wicked cases, the public robber may say, that he 
does not even employ the instrument that actually 
commits the robbery. But, the main question is, 
does he receive the fruit of the robbery ? There 
never was a country so destitue of moral principles 
as not to hold the receiver to he as had as the thief; 
and, therefore, when we receive, we have only to 
ask ourselves, whether the thing received be our 
due ; whether we have rendered goods or services 
in exchange; or whether it came as a free gift^ 
from the possessor. If neither of these can be an- 
swered in the afhrmative, our receiving is a rob- 
bery of somehody, however dark the channel and 
numerous the hands' that the thing received may 
have passed through. 

With regard to the circumstance, that the thing 
is received in virtue of something bearing the name 
of law, the robber seems to forget, that this may » 
really form an addition to the crime, and render 
that a piece of cool and cowardly and insolent cru- 
elty, which, without this circumstance, would have 
been a simple robbery. This is precisely the case, 
which the prophet Isaiah evidently had in his eye 
in the beginning of his xth chapter. *' Wo unto 
them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write 
grievousness which they have prescribed." And, 
to what e7id are these decrees ? Why this writing 
of grievousness !■ " To turn aside the needy from 
judgment, and to take away the right from the 
poor of my people ; that widows may be their pre]/, 
14^ 



162 god's vengeance 

and that they may roh the fatherless." This is the 
end of such unjust laws ; and, indeed, it is the great 
end of all oppression ; for, there is no pleasure in 
merely making a people miserable ; it is in the 
gai7h that is derived from it that the real object is 
always to be found. 

The moMner in which public robbers proceed, 
the means by which they effect this their great end, 
are finely described in the 13th and 14th verses of 
this same chapter of Isaiah. Speaking of the king 
of Assyria and of the glory of his high looks, God 
says, by the mouth of the prophet : " For he saith, 
By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by 
my wisdom ; for I am prudent : and I have re- 
moved the hounds of the people^ and have robbed 
their treasures, and I have put down the inhabit- 
ants like a valiant man." Alas ! how often is 
that termed valour which is, in all respects, as base 
and cowardly as the act of the thief and the mur- 
derer ! But, the means: "And, my hand hath 
found as a nest the riches of the people ; and, as 
one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered 
all the earth; and there was none that moved the 
,^ wing, or opened the mouth or peeped^ 

What a beautiful, what a strong, how animated 
a description of public and sweeping extortion and 
robbery ! First, the tyrant removes the bounds of 
the people ; that is to say the laws which gave 
them protection against robbery ; then he robs them 
of their treasures, which he finds as in a nest^ 
which nest he rifles as unfeeling boys rifle the nests 
of birds ; and, finally, he pillages them and puts 
them down as completely as birds are, when they 
venture not to move the wing, chirp, or peep I 
Miserable, wretched people ! and. Oh ! detestable 
tyrant I And is this tyrant to escape punishment % 



AGAINST PUBLIC ROBBERS. 163 

Is he to carry it thus to the end'? Are the op^ 
pressed, the pillaged, the robbed people not to be 
avenged? " Therefore (ver. 16.) shall the Lord of 
hosts send among his fat ones leanness ; and under 
his glory shall he kindle a burning like the burn- 
ing of a fire !" 

Now, it is not to be supposed, that this auda- 
cious, profligate and cruel tyrant committed the 
robberies with his own hands or that he consumed 
all the eggs himself. He must have had num.erous 
instruments in his work of merciless plunder and 
oppression. He could not, himself, have " fut 
down the inhabitants,^^ so that they dared not move, 
speak, or peep. He must have had bands of ruf- 
fians of some sort or other to assist him. in this, 
and many and many a cunning knave to carry on 
the previous work of "emoving the hounds of the 
people. But, he must have had sharers in the 
spoil; in all probability parasites, spies, pimps and 
harlots. Worthless favourites in crowds would 
naturally be found in his train, without, at the 
most, any merit but their excelling in scenes of 
drunkenness and debauchery. And hence it is 
that the prophet talks of his fat ones ; that is to say, 
the pampered wretches made rich by public plun- 
der, who were to be made lean ; that is, to be com- 
pelled to disgorge their pluiider, and to be brought 
doivn. 

Yet they had laio to plead for their doings ; but, 
that was no good plea, seeing that the very founda- 
tion of their gains was the removing of the bounds 
of the people: or, in other words, the violating of 
the laws that gave them security ; and, hence it is 
that the prophet begins his denunciation by ex- 
claiming: " Wo unto them that decree unrighteous 
decrees that they may rob the defenceless." 



164 

As to the plea of the public-robber, that sort ot 
robbery has heeii going on for ages and ages ; to 
what a pitch of senselessness of shame must a man 
be arrived before he can even think of such a plea! 
Theft and murder have been going on for ages and 
ages ; but, because Cain murdered Abel does the 
murderer of the present day pretend that he has 
committed no crime? The petty thief, far more 
• modest than the public-robber, never attempts to 
justify his deeds on the ground of precedent; never 
attempts to excuse himself b}^ appealing to the an- 
tiquity of the practice. 

But, of all the pleas of the public-robber none is 
so audacious and bespeaks a heart so callous, as 
that the robbery, if not committed by him, would be 
committed hy some other person. Upon such a 
plea what crime, what enormity, may not b© justi- 
fied? What justice was there in condemning the 
fat ones of the King of Assyria, if this plea were 
good for any thing ? The presumption always is, 
that the criminal has done that, which, ^vithout 
him, would not have been done. But this plea, 
which public robbers always set up, would infer, 
that every crime that is committed must have been 
committed by somebody ; and that the criminal is, 
in fact, an unfortunate person, on whom the lot of 
committing the crime has fallen ? This is to strike 
at the very root of all justice and all law. Oh, no ! 
Where we find the theft or the murder committed, 
there we are to look for the thief or the murderer; 
and, where we find the public robbery, there we 
are to look for the public-robber ; for the fat one ; 
and when we find him, on him are we to inflict 
the sentence of leanness. In the evening tide trou- 
ble is to be made to come upon him : and before 
the morning he is not to be. This, in the word* 



AGAINST PUBLIC ROBBERS. 165 

of my text, is to be *' the portion of them that spoil 
us, and the lot of them that rob usP 

Extremely various are the disguises worn by the 
pablic-robber. The devices and contrivances, by 
v^hich he glosses over the act, are as numerous as 
the private terms and signals of common thieves 
and robbers. He is seldom at a loss for a name, 
under w^hich to commit the act, which name, in its 
common acceptation, describes something not cri- 
minal and often highly meritorious. But, with 
those who look fully into the matter, these disguises 
are of no avail. The act of receiving being clearly 
established, it is for the receiver to show, that he is 
justly entitled to what he receives. For, name the 
thing how we will, undue receipt is fraud, stealing 
or robbery. The name may be the means of ef- 
fecting the purpose, and it may secure present im- 
punity ; but, it alters not, and cannot alter, the na- 
ture of the thing. It cannot lessen the crime in 
the eyes of God, who has said, that you shall not 
take from another, except by way of free gift, that 
which is not your^ due. 

It is in vain to pretend ignorance of the source 
of what is obtained unjustly from the public, and to 
affect to believe, that it is a gift from some indivi- 
dual. The shape in which it comes may be that 
of a gift ; but, it must retain its original character ; 
and, go where it may, it is still the fruit of robbery ; 
and the receiver as well as the pretended giver are 
essentially robbers. 

In cases of public robbery, the robbed parties 
are numerous ; but, they are not to be looked upon 
as numerous contributors towards the support of 
one ; for, the robbers may be nuraerous too ; and, 
in time, the effects of the robbery may surpass in 
cruelty those of the sword or the pestilence. There 



166 god's vengeance 

is, in fact, scarcely an evil on the earth equal to 
this. It is cause as well as effect. It produces op- 
pression of all sorts, and is the end of, the thing 
sought for by, every sort of oppression. The ty- 
rant, like the piratical commander, does not enslave 
men for the mere satisfaction arising from that act ; 
but for the sake of what he gains out of them. 
When a tyrant scourges particular slaves, shuts 
them up in dungeons, or puts them to death, it is, 
in his ultimate view, that he may rob the mass-'of 
his slaves with the greater ease and security : and, 
without fear of contradiction from the experience 
of any age or nation, we may assert, that a people 
has never suffered any great and lasting calamity, 
except when public-robbery has been the principal 
cause. 

We ought, therefore, to hold in greater detesta- 
tion and to pursue with greater zeal the public thai? 
the private robber. The acts of the latter are tri- 
fling in their consequences compared with thos^ 
of the former. The aggregate of all the acts o^ 
fraud, stealing, and robbery by private persons, iF 
any community, do not, and cannot, amount to mis- 
chief, a tenth, and perhaps not a thousandth, part s« 
great as that produced by the deeds of public-rob 
bers, and especially in cases, such as that described 
in so forcible a manner by the prophet Isaiah. 
where public-robbery is organised into a system , 
and where the robbers have, at last, the effrontery 
to boast of the extent of their robberies. To what 
a state of wretchedness must a people be reduced, 
when they are treated like the birds of which the 
purveyors of tyranny leave nothing in the nest 
that can move the iciJig, open the mouth, or peep ! 
When a whole nation; when the 77ia7iy are thus 
borne down in order to raise the few to an un- 



AGAINST PUBLIC ROBBERS. 167 

natural height! When, to make a thousand 
^' fcbt oiies,^'' a million of beings, many of whom are 
superior to the fat ones in every natural endow- 
ment and moral quality, are made miserable, have 
the fair fruit of their labour forced from them, and, 
at last, live in a state of such pain and torment as 
to make them question the justice of their Maker 
himself? " A people robbed and spoiled, snared in 
holes, hid in prison-houses, a prey, and none to 
delive%" Where are we to find an evil equal to 
this 1 Where are we to find a crime equal to the 
crimes of those who reduce a people to such a 
state ? And, where then are law and justice if such 
criminals are to escape punishment ? 

But, the evil does not stop with the hunger, the 
sufferings of all sorts, which must arise from taking 
away a large part of the fruit of the toil of a thou- 
sand and giving it to make one fat who does not 
toil at all ; the evil does not stop with the sufferings 
of the many : it goes much further, and, in the end, 
it makes the many thieves and robbers in their pet- 
ty way. " Lest I be 'poor, and steaV,"^ says Hagar ; 
thereby seeming to take it for granted, that poverty 
is a pretty sure source of crimes. That it is such 
all experience teaches us ; for every where we find 
an absence of want amongst the people of a country 
accompanied with an absence of those crimes which 
arise from a desire to come at other men's goods. 

This is perfectly natural ; for, besides the temp- 
tations caused by want, the voice of nature itself 
tells us that it cannot be a crime against God to en- 
deavour to preserve life ; and Solomon says (6th 
chap. Prov. 30th ver.) " Men do not despise a thief 
if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry.'' 
And in case of detection, the punishment he eillots, 
is, the restoring of the thing stolen seven-fold, out 



168 GOD^S VENGEANCE 

of his substance when he shall have any. Upon this, 
doubtless, was grounded that rule of the civil law, 
which did not deem it theft to take victuals to sa- 
tisfy the cravings of hunger. But, how is any 
thing worthy of the name of morality to exist in a 
state of things like that described in my text ? Can a 
people " robbed and spoiled, snared in holes, hid in 
prison-houses, a prey" to the ''fat ones,^^ who leave 
i;othing that " moveth the wing, openeth the mouth, 
or peepeth ;" who, in other words, strip the labour 
er of the fruit of his sweat, and reduce him to a ske 
leton ; how is any thing worthy of the name 0/ 
moi-ality to be expected to be found in such a state 
of things? Is it possible for people who are 
*' robbed and spoiled," and who, if they complain, 
are "snared in holes" and " hid in prison-houses," 
to look upon the goods of the ''fat ones,^^ that is 
to say, of the robbers and spoilers, as sacred from 
their touch ? When a people see, as described by 
the prophet Ezekiel, the "fat omi'' who like 
" wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, to de- 
stroy souls, to get dishonest gains /" and when they 
see the prophets "-daubing them over with untem- 
pered mortar ;^^ when a people see these things, 
who is to expect that people to be honest ? 

An unfortunate mariner, who, captured by Bar- 
bary pirates, saw the ruffians strutting on the deck 
dressed in the several articles of his best attire, 
could not, though he knew his life must be thfe 
price, refrain from venting his execrations on them, 
who instantly buried their daggers in his body. 
What contentment, then; what patience; what 
obedience, except by sheer compulsion ; are to be 
expected from a people " robbed and spoiled," and 
who, if they make complaint, are shut up in " pri- 
son-houses ?" They behold the " M ones" wallow- 



AGAINST PUBLIC ROBBERS. 169 

ing in luxurious enjoyments, eating and drinking to 
satiety and to surfeiting, revelling and wantoning, 
wasting and flinging away, seeming to be at a loss, 
for the means of getting rid of the good things of 
the earth. Such a people know that all these things 
are the fruit of their toil. They know, that, of right, 
these things belong to them. They behold the pub- 
lic robbers with feelings similar to those with which 
the captured mariner beheld the barbarous and in- 
solent pirate ; and, if they take not vengeance, it 
can only be for want of the power. 

To make men happy in society, there must be 
laws ; to administer these laws there must be con- 
tributions on the part of the people. Some must 
labour with the mind and some with the body ; all 
men require sustenance, and as this is produced 
only by bodily labour, those who labour with the 
mind must be maintained by those who labour with 
the body. In other words, it is the interest as well 
as the duty, of all the members of every civil soci- 
ety, to contribute according to their means, towards 
the' support of those who transact the public affairs ; 
that is to say, the body of persons who constitute 
the rulers or government ; and he who grudges to 
do this is a bad member of society, and, at bottom, 
a dishonest man ; because, he receives protection 
from the government, and he wishes to evade his 
share of the expense. Nor will a wise people use 
a scanty measure in their rewards to those Avho 
conduct their concerns, in doing honour to whom 
they really do honour to themselves. But, this sup- 
poses concerns well conducted; and, above all 
things, an absence of oppression on the part of the 
persons honoured. For, if oppression take place, 
no matter from what cause, the government has 
forfeited its claim to support and honour. ** Op^ 
15 



170 god's VENGEA.NCE 

pression" says Solomon, will '* surely make hwise 
man mad." And, indeed, what is it but oppression 
that has caused all the convulsions and civil wars 
that we have read of, either in ancient or modern 
times? 

Oppression is not a vague term. It does not 
mean any thing fanciful, and that map or map voi 
be of consequence to the party oppressed. It means 
the spoiling or taking away of men's goods or es- 
tates by constraint, terror, or force, without having 
any right thereunto. And, how can this act be so 
offensive as when it take the shape of public rob- 
bery, and when the substance of a people is, as in 
the case described by the prophet, heaped on the 
^' fat ones''' by means of extortion and cruelty in 
the collection, which leaves not a wing to move, a 
mouth to open, or an eye to peep ? Men have as- 
scribed convulsions, rebellions, and sanguinary 
deeds committed by infuriated multitudes to various 
causes ; but, look at them well ; trace them to their 
causes: see them in their very beginnings : and 
you will always find, that they aiise out of oppres- 
sion ; that is to say, out of the conduct of the ''fai 
enes,^^ who have " found as in a nest the riches of 
the people ;" who, stripped of their all, have had 
nothing to lose ; have been unable to see in any 
thing that could happen a change for the worse ; 
and who have, therefore, gladly embraced anything 
promising a change. 

What under the sun can be so provoking ; so 
stinging to the heart of man, as to see the fruit of 
his toil, his skill, his care, devoured by those who, 
in no possible way, yield him any thing in return ? 
And what must he be made of, who can joyously 
live on the fruit of the labour of thousands, while 
those thousands are reduced to beggary and mi- 



AGAINST PUBLIC ROBBERS. 171 

sery ? The public robber frequently passes with- 
out crime imputed to him, for want of facility in 
tracing his crime to the sufferer. But, he must 
know that he commits the crime He must know, 
that that which he devour eth is not his. Aye, 
and he knows too, that hunger, nakedness, disease, 
insanity, and ignominious deaths innumerable, are 
the consequence of his " dishonest gains,^^ for the 
sake of obtaining which he " sheds blood and de- 
stroys souls." 

Yet, the history of the world is not without its in- 
stances of the most odious and cruel public robbery, 
defended, and even carried on, by men, pretending 
to extraordinary piety and wearing the garb of un- 
commonly scrupulous sanctity ! It is when the 
public robber assumes this mask that he is most 
dangerous ; for, having brought himself to make a 
mockery of God, what belonging to man is to hold 
him in restraint ? The notorious public robber and 
the pretended saint united in the same person ; the 
" gain of oppressions" in one hand, and the manual 
of piety in the other, is, surely, the most detestable 
sight that ever met the eye of man. But, let the 
hypocrite remember, that God has said (Isaiah, ch. 
Ixi. ver. 8.) "I hate robbery for burnt offering." 
And that he has also said, in the words of my 
text, that trouble and destruction shall, in the end, 
** be tbe portion of them that spoil us, and the 
lot of them that rob us." 



THE UNNATURAL MOTHER. 



" Even the Sea-monsters draw out the breast i they give 
suck to their young ones." Lamentations, chap. iv. ver. 3. 



Of all the sorrows known to mankind, how large 
a portion, and those sorrows, too, of the most acute, 
arises from a deficiency of aflection in children to- 
wards their parents ! We daily see fortunes, the 
fruit of the industry and care of ages, squandered 
in a single year. We see fathers and mothers 
reduced to beggary, or made wretched during the 
half of their lives by stubborn and profligate child- 
ren ; or, at the least, their last hours embittered by 
alarming apprehensions as to the fate of those 
children. The immediate causes of this misery 
are usually visible enough ; but, the distant cause, 
the root of the evil, is seldom so clear before us, 
and is generally hidden from the parents them- 
selves even more closely than from the rest of the 
world. 

The whole congregation of animated nature tell 
us with united voice, that it is the province of age 
to give instruction to youth, of the experienced to 
teach the inexperienced, and especially of the pa- 
rent to train up the child. The lioness, after hav- 
ing suckled her whelp, then brings it nourishment 
suited to its more advanced age, and leads it forth by 
degrees in search of its prey. The wren, having 
hatched her brood, first brings them their meals in 
her bill, then shows them how to peck, next how 
to take their flights, and, lastly, where to seek their 
food and how to provide for their security. Hero 



THE UNNATURAL MOTHER. 173 

the duties of these irrational parents cease, and, 
with them, perhaps, all recollection of the ties 
of consanguinity. Not so with man. Here the 
ties continue, or ought to continue, in full force, 
and to be broken asunder only by the hand of 
death. 

We all know and acknowledge, that it is of the 
greatest importance to both parties, that children 
should receive good advice and instruction from 
parents. " Train up a child in the way he should 
go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." 
Prov. chap. xx. ver. 6. Indeed, without the instruc- 
tion of parents what are children ? Little better 
than wild animals. But, to be able to instruct, you 
must find in the child a disposition to listen to in- 
struction ; and, to be aided by this disposition, you 
must have the deep-rooted affection of the child ; 
and, to be deep-rooted, it must have been implanted 
at an early age. The days of the rod soon pass 
away. Law, interest, force of one kind or another, 
may restrain for a season ; but the power of these 
has its end ; and then, if there be not filial affection, 
the foundation of which is deeply laid in the breast, 
the parent has no power. Even the brightest ex- 
ample loses half its force, if unsupported by this 
affection. 

This being, then, an object of such vast import- 
ance, ought we to neglect any of the means ne- 
cessary to the securing of it ? Ought we to neglect 
any of those duties on which our own happiness 
as well as that of our children so mainly depend % 
Ought we to neglect those things which are mani- 
festly calculated to make our children always listen 
to uc with attention and respect, and to yield us 
cheerful obedience '2 What, to parents, are, or, at 
)east, ought to be, all other enjoyments, compared 
15* 



174 THE UNNATURAL MOTHER. 

with those which arise from the love of their-child- 
ren towards them ? 

Yet, we are not to expect this love without de- 
serving it ; without doing those things which are 
calculated to inspire it and keep it alive. This love 
is of a nature very different indeed from that which 
we feel towards those not connected with us by ties 
of blood : they arise from sources wholly different. 
The latter is inspired by a look or a sound; the 
former must have hahit, and early habit, too, to in- 
sure its existence in a degree that can render it a 
motive of action. There is nothing in the form or 
the features, or voice or motion of the parent to 
awaken or preserve love in the child. To possess 
this, therefore, there must be a series of the kindest 
acts on the part of the parent, beginning even be- 
fore the child can speak, and never ceasing but 
with the parent's latest breath. To say to a son, / 
am your parent, is very little. If his own heart do 
not tell him this, you may as well hold your tongue. 

Children are born with dispositions widely dif- 
ferent, and are to be treated in a manner suited to 
those dispositions. But, one thing is applicable to 
all cases ; and that is, that every child ought to be 
treated with as much kindness and indulgence as 
is compatible with its own good, and that parents 
have no right to follow their own pleasure or 
amusements, if, "by following them, they neglect 
their children. Tbey have brought them into 
the world by their own choice ; and, having done 
that, it is their ^r^iJ duty to watch over their infancy 
with incessant care. They are not to shift those 
cares on others. Th^se are duties not to be per- 
formed by deputy ; or, if they be, let not the parents 
complain if the child's affections follow the per- 
formance of the duties. 



THE UNNATURAL MOTHER. | 175 

If this be the case with regard to those duties 
which may, without any positive violation of the 
latvs of nature, be performed by deputy, what are 
we to say of that species of neglect, or, rather, that 
species of parental cruelty, alluded to in my text ! 
If " even the sea-monsters draw out the breast and 
give suck to their young ones," what are we to think 
of those mothers, and mothers pretending to religion 
too, who cast off their children to draw the means 
of life from a hireling breast % 

In an act of this sort there are injustice, cruelty, 
baseness, grossness, and all in the extreme degree. 
The mother's milk is the birthright of the child. 
It is his by nature's decree. Nothing can supply 
its place. It is a physical impossibility to find 
another breast precisely suited to his age, his appe- 
tite and constitution. Indeed, without his own breast, 
he is but half a child. Besides, even if another 
breast be found to supply, in some measure, the 
place of that of which he has been defrauded, it must 
be to the injury of another. Another must be ousted 
from his birthright to make room for the interloper. 
There must be two cast offs ; two violations of the 
law of nature ; two unnatural mothers. What must 
she be who can cast off her own child, and, for hire, 
transfer her breast to another ; and^ what must she 
De, then, who, without any temptation, other than 
ner own gross propensities, can commit her child to 
the care and the breast of such a hireling ! 

The cruelty of such a transaction scarcely admits 
of adequate description. To inflict pain unjustly is 
cruelty ; and, what pains are not inflicted on these 
banished children ? He Avho is the most fortunate ; 
he who gets the breast, is compelled to swallow 
what nature did not design for him. Ailments, suf- 
ferings, torments of every kind assail even him, 



176 A THE UNNATURAL MOTHER. 

while, at the same time, he has no mother's care to 
alleviate his sufferings. But, what becomes of the 
child of the hireling ? He has neither mother nor 
breast. He is left to take his chance on food wholly- 
unfit for him ; and is, in fact, exposed to die, for the 
sake of the money, for which his birthright has been 
sold ! And, is this tolerated, or winked at, by that 
code of laws, which hangs the girl, whose dread of 
shame and reproach induces her to put an end, at 
once, to the life of the result of her amours ? The 
crime, in this case, is more shocking than in the 
other ; but, is the wickedness greater ? If we take 
the motives, in the two cases, fairly into view, we 
shall see that the heart of her, who destroys her 
new-born babe, though that heart must be hard 
enough, may be less flinty than that of her who 
banishes her infant from her breast, in the one case 
for the sake of money, and, in the other case, for 
purposes too gross, too filthy, to be named. 

It is a crime, and a crime which the law justly 
and invariably punishes with death, or with some- 
thing little short of death, to expose an infant to the 
manifest hazard of perishing. And, is not every 
infant thus exposed that is robbed of its mother's 
milk Ir And, shall such robbery be regarded as no 
crime at all ? If an infant die from wilful exposure 
to wet or cold, is not the act of exposure deemed 
murder, and is not the guilty party put to death, 
and that, too, with the approbation of all mankind, 
who, on such occasions, have no pity for the un- 
natural mother ? But, is she, actuated by the fear 
of the displeasure of parents, by the dread of shame 
and ruin ; is she more unnatural, is she, indeed, 
nearly so unnatural, as the mother, who, without 
these strong temptations, without any temptation at 
alij other than tho?e of the most gross or most sordid 



THE UNNATURAL MOTHER, t 177 

description, exposes her infant to die a lingering 
death, to imbibe disease and feebleness instead of 
health and strength ; who lets out to hire or dries 
up the fountain from which God and nature say her 
infant is to draw the means of existence and of 
vigour ? 

The baseness of the banishing mother is equal to 
her cruelty. The creature, on whom she inflicts 
certain suffering and probqjpl^ death, is wholly help- 
less. He has no friend, no defender, no protector, 
no one to plead his cause. The callow mouse or 
the naked bird is not so friendless. No ? Has he 
no father 1 None ; for that man is unworthy of the 
name, who can suffer so foul, so base an act of in- 
justice. Before the babe can be banished from its 
birthright, father, mother, kindred, all must be base. 
Look at its little hand, not so big as the top of your 
thumb ; its fingers the size of straws ; hear its 
voice smaller than the softest sounds of the lute ; 
see it turning for the means of life to the limpid and 
pure stores formed by nature ; stand by while its 
little mouth is taken thence and jilaced at the nau- 
seating hired mess, and, then, add hypocrisy to 
cruelty by calling yourself its father I 

And, what is the motive, to the commission of 
this unnatural crime ? For what reason is it that 
the rich mother deprives her child of his birth- 
right % Can she give any ? Dares she give any % 
The motives are two in number, the one, that her 
beauty may not suffer from the performance of her 
most sacred duty ; the other too gross, too beastly, 
to be named, except within the walls of a brothel. 
Let it be observed, however, that, as to the first 
motive, it is pretty sure to fail, if beauty be valued 
on account of its power over the husband. For, 
the flame of love being past, the fire is kept alive 



178 THE UNNATURAL MOTHER. 

by nothing so effectually as by the fruit of it ; and, 
what becomes of this, if the child be banished to a 
hireling breast? Of all the things that attach hus- 
bands to wives, that make the chain bright as well 
as strong, is the frequent, the daily, the almost 
hourly contemplation of that most beautiful and 
most affecting and endearing of all sights, the in- 
fant hugged in the mother's arms and clinging to 
her breast. The propjiet Isaiah, in announcing 
the promise of God to his people, has recourse to 
the figure of mother and child : " Then shall ye 
suck, ye shall be borne upon her sides and be dan- 
dled upon her knees." 

Those who drive from their bosoms the fruit of 
their love, drive away the love also, or at least, the 
best guarantee for its duration. She who closes 
the fountain of life against her offspring is not a 
mother, and is only half a wife. It is not the exte- 
rior of that fountain that is the real cause of its 
being an object of admiration. The prophet Ho- 
se a, in calling for a curse on the desperately 
wicked, exclaims : *' Give them, O Lord ; what 
wilt thou give them ?" He hesitates here, as it 
were to consider, and to think of something pecu- 
liarly mortifying and degrading ; and then he pro- 
ceeds : " Give them a miscarrying womb and dri/ 
breasts !^^ This curse, this degradation, the unna- 
tural mother voluntarily inflicts upon herself; and, 
in doing this she breaks in sunder the strongest tie 
that holds to her the heart of her husband. Let the 
most beautiful woman in the world be placed before 
a man of twenty -two ; see him dying in love for her ; 
give him to know of a certainty that her breasts 
will be always dry ; a train of disgusting ideas 
rush through his mind, and he, if not the grossest 
of mankind, is cured in a moment. 



THE UNNATURAL MOTHER. 179 

It IS the interior and not the exterior of the female 
breast, it is the thought, and not the sight, that 
makes the charm. The object of which we are 
speaking is delightful from first to last. It is one 
of the things which God has given to man as a 
reward for his toils and his cares, as a compensa- 
tion for the numerous troubles and anxieties of life. 
But I appeal to the husband and father, whether 
that object has ever, at an^ stage of life or under 
any circumstances, appeared so charming in his 
eyes as in those moments Avhen met by the lips of 
his child, and whether his wife was ever so close 
to his heart, as when smiling on the babe at her 
breast ? 

It becomes wives, and young wives in particu- 
lar, to think well of these things ; to reflect, that 
she who disinherits her son from the moment he 
sees the light, voluntarily abandons half her claims 
as a wife and all her claims as a mother. Mar- 
riage is an institution intended to secure the care- 
ful rearing up of children. But, if mothers cast 
off their children, the object of the institution is not 
answered ; and that law appears unjust which en- 
forces fidelity in the husband and duty in the child, 
towards a wife and mother, who has refused to per- 
form her duty towards either. A son, who is able 
to maintain his mother, is, by law, compelled to do 
it, in case she stand in need of relief But is this 
just, if the mother have robbed him of that which 
nature awarded him, and have exposed him to the 
manifest risk of perishing in his infancy? And, 
under different circumstances, under circumstances 
where the law is silent, and where filial affection is 
the only tie, what affection, what obedience, what 
respect has she to expect from a son, when that 
son knows, that she banished him from her breast^ 



180 THE UNNATURAL MOTHER. 

and that he owes his life, and perchan^, his dm- 
eases and debility, to the mercenary milk of, a hire- 
ling ; when he knows, that, in the true sense of the 
word, she has made him a bastard : it being im- 
possible that a child can be basely b^orn, and it 
being notorious, that the uniform custom of men 
has been to give the appellation of bastard to all 
animals borne by one and suckled by another ? 

Let it not be pretended, that a hireling will feel 
for the child that which the mother would feel; 
that she will have the same anxieties and take the 
same care. Nature, which causes the stream to 
start when the mother's ear meets the sound of the 
longing voice of the child, as which of us has not 
seen the milk of the ewe begin to drop the moment 
she heard the demanding voice of the lamb, though 
at the distance of half the field ; nature, which 
creates this wonderful sympathy, gives the lie direct 
to all such false and hypocritical pretences. When 
the rival mothers came before Solomon, " The king 
said, Bring me a sword : divide the living child in 
two, and give half to the one, and half to the other. 
Then spake the woman, whose the living child 
w^as, unto the king (for her bowels yearned unto 
her son,) and she said, O, my lord! give her the 
living child and in no wise slay it But, the other 
said. Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.^^ 
Never was there a more happy illustration of the 
difference in the feelings of a real and those of a 
pretended mother. Observe, too, that the hireling 
must begin by being herself an unnatural mother; 
she must begin by robbing her own oifepring of 
his birthright ; by driving him from her breast, and, 
ninety-nine times out of a hundred, from her sight: 
she must begin by doing that which even the sea- 
monsters are not guilty of, and which is condemned 



THE UNNATURAL MOTHER. 181 

by^he uniform practice of every beast of the field 
andeveryfowloftheair. « "wu 

ni A } ^'^^'f^ '^ t^e '"o^er, when he has 
r/r^^^l'^rl^ r*^ ^™^^" "P *« manhood, can we 
ex^ct tha^ obedience, which can only be the effTct 
of fihal affection ? Solomon, Prov. chap, iv vTrl 
o 4 m inculcating obedience, states how he listened 

attendmg to their precepts ; " For, I ivas my father's 

mother That is, that he was the favourite son 
of his father and that his mother loved him in an 
uncommon degree. This was the foundation on 

which he rested the obedience of children7this was 

he cause to which he ascribed his having lieS 

to their advice. But, what, then, is a moTher to 

expect from a son who fails not, 'and who « 

ther's bSi^sS m : ^'' ' <=f t-off from his mo 
tners breast? What gratitude is he to feel to- 
ward one, who, from love of pleasure or from ove 
of gam ; from a motive the most grossly discus ina 
or the most hatefully sordid, left him to take n! 
stranger's arms the even chance of life orLh ? 

childrenfh!!t?>, '^T''^''' °^ "^''^^'^ towards 
veJv diffi^int f '^ ^T ^"^"" ^^°"i their breast is 
^ery different from what it would have been if thev 
had duly performed their duties as mothers Thl 
mere act of bringing forth a child is not sufficient 
to create a lasting affection for him. A seafon of 
severe suffermg is not calculated to leate behTnd ^ 
a tram of pleasing and endearing reflections T 
IS in her arms and at her breast Aat hfwTns her 

aTuS: 'IZ't li'' rs T' '''' ^f '^^^ 



182 J THE UNNATURAL MOTHER. 

that she should not have compassion for him?" 
But, if the mother have merely brought him into 
the world ; if none of the endearments of the cradle ; 
if none of the intercourse of babe and nurse have 
taken place between them ; if the mother have, in 
the fulness of her fondness and amiable partialit}^ 
nothing to relate and to boast of in the history of 
his first twenty months ; if this space be with her 
a blank in his life, she never loves him as a mother 
ought to love ; while he, taught by unerring nature, 
is quick as lightning in penetrating her feelings, 
and repays her with that indifference and coldness 
which, though a punishment of great severity, are 
her just reward. 

Wives, and young wives in particular, let me 
beseech you to reflect on these things. Let me 
beseech you to cast from you, not your children, 
but those crafty flatterers v/ho would persuade you, 
that to preserve your health and your beauty, you 
must become unjust, cruel, base, gross and unnatu- 
ral ; that, to provide for your health, you must dam 
up the fountains the flow of which is in many cases 
necessary to your very existence ; and that, to make 
yourselves objects of love, you must cast from you 
that which of all things in the world is best calcu- 
lated to rivet to you ^e hearts of your husbands. 
But, after all, old age must come ; and then w here 
are you to look for the great comforter of old age ; 
the affection and attention and obedience of child- 
ren ? For, always bear in mind, that he, who has 
not known a mother's breast, has no mother ! As 
you recede he advances; v/hile decrepitude and 
deformity are creeping over you, he is bounding on 
in all the pride of health, strength and beauty. 
Tender and most affectionate mother as you may 
have been, and, as it is to be hoped the far greater 



THE UNNATURAL MOTHER. 183 

part of you will be, he still stands in need of the 
command of God : " Hearken unto thy father, and 
despise not thy mother when she is ohV^ But, if, 
even in supch a case, the precept is necessary, what 
is to bind the son in cases where, from the unnatu- 
ral conduct of the mother, the precept does not 
apply ? If the son have grown to manhood with a 
knowledge of his infant bastardized state ; for to 
hide this from him or to make him forget it is im- 
possible ; if he have grown up in habitual coldness 
and indifference towards you, how are you, when 
age and deformity and approaching dissolution have 
laid their hand on you, to expect reverence and 
attentive listening at his hands? Nothing is more 
praiseworthy, nothing more truly amiable, than to 
see men grown up to the prime of life, listening 
with attentiion to the voice of their parents ; but, is 
this to be looked for, or even hoped for, in the ab- 
sence of filial affection? And how, amidst all the 
other objects of affection^ which plassion creates in 
the breast of youth, is that affection to exist, unless 
implanted in infancy and cherished all the way up 
to manhood : and how is it to be implanted, if the 
mother cast off the child to a hireling breast? 

There is indeed, amongst the monsters in human 
shape, now-and-then a son to be found, who can 
despise the counsels and even mock at the suppli- 
cations and tears of the affectionate, and tender 
mother, whose breast has nourished him ; who 
has known no joy but in his smiles, and no sorrow 
but in his wailing ; who has watched with trem- 
bling anxiety every quiver of his speechless lips ; 
to whose heart every writhing of his infant body 
has been a dagger ; who has wholly forgotten, 
amidst the dangers of contagion, her own life while 
his was in danger ; there is, amongst the monsters- 



184 THE UNNATURAL MOTHER. 

in human shape now-and-then to be found the son 
of such a mother to mock at her supplications and 
her tears. But, let us hope, that, in England at any 
rate, such sons are rare indeed. And, even, in su^h 
a case the mother has this consolation; that the 
fault has not been hers ; that she has done her 
duty towards God and towards her child ; and that, 
if she have an unnatural son, she has every just 
and humane heart to sympathise in her sorrows. 

But under similar circumstances, what consola- 
tion has the unnatural mother ? How is she w^ho 
cast her son from her breast, to complain of his 
want of affection? Old age has overtaken her ; the 
fancied beauty, for which she bartered his birth- 
right, is gone for ever. The gay hours, which she 
purloined from the cares of the cradle, are all 
passed away, and cannot be replaced by the com- 
forting conversation and heart-cheering obedience 
of her son. She now feels the force of the maxim, 
No breast, no mother. The hireling is more his 
mother than she. The last stage of life is no sea- 
son for the officious attention of friends ; and he, 
who would have been worth all the friends in the 
world, has in his breast no feeling sufficiently 
strong to draw him to this scene of sadness. If 
held by some tie of interest, his hypocrisy, which 
he cannot disguise from the sharp sight of con- 
scious want of duty, only adds to her mortification ; 
and though she roll in riches, she envies the happy 
mother in rags. Thus without a single ray to dissi- 
pate the gloom, she passes on to that grave, on which 
she know^s not a tear will be shed, and in her fate 
proclaims to the world the truth, which cannot be too 
often repeated, that the duties of children and those of 
parents are reciprocal, and that, to insure the perform- 
ance of the former, the latter must first be performed. 



THE SIN 

OP 

FORBIDDING MARRIAGE. 



"Now the Spirit speaketh expressljr, that in the latter fi'me^ ? 
some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seduicing 
spirits, and doctrines of devils. Speaking Zies in hypocrisy: 
having their conscience seared wit»h a hot iron ; forbidding to ^*' 
marry."— Paul's 1st Epis. to Tim. ch. iv. ver. 1. 



The holy apostle seems, in the text before us, to 
have but too plainly and too precisely, described 
that which we of this nation now, unhappily, be- 
hold. The speaking of lies has been but too com- - 
mon in all ages. Hyjpocrisy, however, on a widely 
spread system, upheld by positive schemes, open 
combinations, compacts and affiliations, has been, let 
us hope, known in no other country, as it was, hap- 
pily for our forefathers, unknown in their days of 
comparative frankness and sincerity. But, the sin, 
quite peculiar to the present day ; that part of the 
" doctrines of devils" which belongs wholly to the 
present generation, is, that \Nhic\i forbids to marry ; 
and that, too, under the false, hypocritical, and athe- 
istical pretence, that God, while he constantly urges 
men to increase and multiply ; while he does this 
by general laws as well as by express command, 
has ordained, that, if they obey these laws, and this 
command, they shall be punished and destroyed by 
their vices and their misery! 

When, in former times, men held unnatural i 

opinions and cherished hellish doctrines, the dread ' 

of public odium restrained them from openly pro- - 

mulgating those doctrines. But we live in an ag^e ? 

16* 



186 THE SIN OF 

when public rectitude has ceased to impose sucL 
restraint. Those, who hold these ''doctrines of dt- 
vils ;^^ who thus declare war against the funda- 
mental laws of nature and of social life, and who set 
at nought the word, the'providence and the poAver 
of God, not only utter their doctrines openly and 
without restraint or fear, but make a boast of their 
atheistical reveries, become enthusiasts in the cause 
of daring impiousness, form themselves into bands, 
seek proselytes throughout the country, and in the 
excess of their insolence, which has been encou- 
raged. by public forbearance, they seem at last, to 
hope to enlist the legislature itself under their ban- 
ners, and to give the force of law to their inhuman, 
impious and diabolical principles. 

We all know, that marriage is necessary to the 
very existence of civil society; that, without it, the 
child would, in fact, have no father ; that the inter- 
course between the sexes would be purely casual ; 
and, in short, that there would be neither families 
nor community. The impious and audacious men, 
who would fain prevent, or check, the practice of 
marrying, do not therefore, attempt to defend a total 
prohibition of the practice ; but would check the 
practice of marrying amongst the labouring classes, 
and would, at the same time, have them punished 
for having children without being married ! Their 
pretence, is, that, if marriage and breeding children 
be not checked by human laws, that is to say, by 
force, the people will, in time, increase so much in 
numbers, that there will not be food suficie7it for 
them ; and that a part of them must be destroyed 
either by disease, famine, the sword, or by igno- 
minious death. 

Perhaps any thing so directly atheistical was 
never before openly avowed. This is, at once, to 



FORBIDDING MARRIAGE. 187 

put man upon a level with the beasts of the field. 
It sets all the laws and commands of" God at de- 
fiance. It supposes his word to be ties or foolish- 
ness ; for, in how many parts of Holy Writ does 
he command to increase and multiply, and in how 
many other parts does he promise this increase as 
a proof of his approbation and as a mark of l^is 
blessing ! " Be ye fruitful and multiply ; bring 
forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply there- 
in." Genesis, ch. ix. ver. 7. Again: " Take a 
wife ; and God Almighty bless thee and make thee 
fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou m.ayest, be a 
multitude of people." Genesis, ch. xxviii. ver. 3. 
Again in Genesis, ch. xxxv. ver. 11. " And God 
said unto Jacob, I am God Almighty ; be fruitful 
and multiply." That is to say, trust in me ; do not 
fear the want of food or of raiment sufficient for 
those that shall be born ; / am God Almighty ; I 
will take ftare by my unerring laws to provide meat 
for every mouth. But, the impious men, who would 
now forbid to, marry, clearly do not believe either in 
the wisdom or the power of God, and, indeed, they 
cannot believe in the existence of a Supreme Being; 
or, else they are blasphemers who set his power 
and vengeance at defiance. 

In Numbers, ch. xxxvi. ver. 6. it is written, " Let 
your young women marry whom they think best." 
In Psalm cvii. ver. 38. " He blessed them also, so 
that they are multiplied greatly." Bat, if we were 
to listen to these modern " sons of Belial," we must 
regard this as a curse, and not as a blessing. The 
prophet Jeremiah says, " Take ye wives and beget 
sons and daughters ; and take wives for your sons ; 
and give your daughters to husbands, that they 
may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be in- 
creased and not diminished." Not a wcrd about 



188 THE SIN OF 

checking" the increase of people. Not a word of 
apprehension that marriage and the hreeding of 
children are to produce vice and misery! 

Can, then, any thing be more impious than the 
doctrine of these preachers of, this " doctrine of de- 
vils ?" And, are they not directly pointed at in the 
words of my text ? Do they not answer precisely 
to the description of some that should arise in 
these latter days, " speaking lies in hypocrisy, hav- 
ing their conscience seared with a hot iron ; forbid- 
ding to marry f^ 

What, if these impious and cruel men could have 
their will, would be the consequences ? We all 
know, that the greatest of all earthly blessings are 
found in the married state. Without woman, what 
is man ? A poor, solitary, misanthropic creature ; 
a rough, uncouth, a hard, unfeeling, and almost 
brutal being. Take from the heart the passion of 
love, and life is not worth haviag: youth has no- 
thing to enjoy, and age nothing to remember with 
delight. And, without marriage, without selection, 
without single attachment, what is love? The 
mere passion is still the same, but leading to a long 
list of woes instead of pleasures ; plunging, in short, 
a whole community into the miseries of debauchery 
and prostitution, depriving children of the care and 
protection due from parents, and making a people 
what a herd of beasts now is. 

The preachers of the " doctrines of devils" do 
not, however, go this length ; or, at least, they pre- 
tend to stop short of it. They would check the dis- 
position to marry in the labouring classes only ! If 
they had selected the idle classes there would have 
been less ground for condemnation. But, let us 
look a little at their reasons for this diabolical 
proposition. They say, that the labourer, by 



FORBIDDING MARRIAGE. 189 

marrying and having children, becomes a burden 
upon the parish ; that he has no right to relief from 
the parish ; that he ought not to have children un- 
less he himself can maintain them. 

Now, to this there are two answers : first, that 
he has, if indigent, a right to relief according to 
those principles on which civil society stands : se- 
cond, that if he be compelled to give uj) part of 
the fruit of his labour to others, he has an addilion- 
al right, and is justified in having children with a 
view of demanding from those others the means to 
assist in maintaining them. 

As to the first case, which simply supposes the 
labourer to be destitute of a sufficiency of food and 
raiment, let us look back at the beginning of civil 
society. God gave all the land and all its fruits to 
all the people thereof He did not award a hun- 
dred acres to one and a thousand to another and 
ten thousand to a third. These are now become 
prop&rty ; they are secured to the possessors by 
the laws ; it is criminal to violate those laws. But, 
it was not, because it could not, be a part of the so- 
cial compact, that any part of the people then exist- 
ing were to be bereft of food and of raiment and of 
the means of obtaining them by their labour. If 
the whole of the lands of this island, for instance, 
had been parcelled out into few hands at once, is it 
to be believed, that, the very next day, the proprie- 
tors would have had a right to say to the many, 
" We will keep all the fruits to ourselves, and you 
shall starve ; the lands are our property, and you 
have no right to any share in their fruits ?" Com- 
mon sense says that this could not be ; and, yet, if 
the first proprietors had no such exclusive poss^.s- 
sion, how came such possession into the hands of 
their successors ? 



190 THE SIN OF 

If the land of this island were, by any turn of 
events, by any commercial or financial consequen- 
ces, to become the property of forty men, would 
those forty men have a right to cause all the rest 
of the people to starve by throwing up their lands 
to lie fallow, and by merely raising food for them- 
selves and families ? The bare supposition is mon- 
strous ; and yet, who can deny them this right, if 
the man in want of food and raiment have no right 
to a share of the fruits of the earth in the shape of 
relief 

Civil society has no justifiable basis but that of 
the general good. It inflicts partial wrong ; it is 
partial in the distribution of its favours ; it causes 
an unequal distribution of goods ; it gives to the 
feeble what the law of nature gave to the strong ; it 
allots riches to the idiot and poverty to genius ; it 
endows the coward and strips the brave. But, with 
all its imperfections it is for the general good ; and 
this is its basis, and none other it has. But, can it 
be for the general good, if it leave the indigent to 
perish, while the proprietors are wallowing in 
wealth and luxury ? Can it be for the general good, 
if the class who till the land, make the raiment, 
and build the houses, have no right to a share of 
the fruits of the earth, and if their very existence be 
to depend on the mere mercy or humour of the pro- 
prietors of the land ? Can it, in a word, be for the 
general good, if the law do not effectually provide 
that the many shall not be sacrificed to the avarice 
or cruelty of the few % Happily the laws be- 
queathed us by our just and pious forefathers, those 
laws so consonant with the laws of God, those laws 
which the preachers of the " doctrines of devils'' 
Vould now fain overthrow ; happily those laws 
growing out of the basis of civil society, have given 



FORBIDDING MARRIAGE. 191 

the many a compensation for the loss of the rights 
of nature, and have said to the proprietors, The land 
is yours ; but no man that treads it shall perish for 
want. 

As to the second case ; to tell a man that he loses 
his claim to relief in consequence of his having 
children ; is to tell him that he has no right to love ; 
and to tell him that he has no right to love, is to tell 
him that he has no right to live ; that he has no 
right to carry a heart in his bosom, and no right to 
breathe the air ! To tell him, that he has no right, 
except in cases of unavoidable misfortune, to throw 
the burden of maintaining his children on others is 
true enough ; but, then, let him for their mainte- 
nance have all the fruit of his and their labour. Let 
no part of this hard earned fruit be taken away from 
his cot and be carried and given to others. Let the 
proprietors not call upon him for a part of what he 
has earned, and then tell him, that they are not 
bound to assist him in the rearing of his family. 
Nay, in common justice and for mere shame's sake, 
let them not compel him to come forth and venture 
his life in their defence, and then tell . him, that, 
if he love, marry, and have children, it is at his 
peril ! 

Happily the monsters in human form, who have 
broached this truly hellish doctrine, have, as yet, no 
power to give it practical effect. If they had, if the 
execution of it could be, by any possibility, endured, 
this country, so singularly favoured, so blessed by 
an all-bountiful Providence, must again become sa- 
vage and desolate ; for, it is not against the idle but 
against the laborious, not against the drones but 
against the bees, that these sons of profaneness level 
their poisonous shafts. If, indeed, it were the idlers, 
those who live only to consume (I do not use the 



192 THE SIN OF 

words invidiously,) those who do not assist the la* 
borious part of the nation, those who devour and 
contribute not towards the raising of food ; if it were 
this class that these men sought to prevent from 
marrying, there might be some apology for the pro- 
position, some reason, on this ground, for an endea- 
vour to prevent an increase of those whose utility in 
the world is not so apparent. Such might be prevent- 
ed from marrying upon the ground, that their in- 
crease would add nothing to the stock of food, and 
might be a still greater burden to the laborious part 
of the community than that same class is at present. 
Even as applied to those classes, however, the doc- 
trine would be false and impious ; for, in all commu- 
nities there must be many, who do not assist in rais- 
ing food. There must, in every community, be 
some to live at their ease, or there would be no sti- 
mulus to labour, ease being the great object of in 
dustry. 

But, no : these daring sons of Belial, so far from 
proposing to check the increase of those who do not 
labour, wish to keep down the number of labourers 
and to load them with heavier burdens in order 
that those who do not toil may have still more than 
they now have ; in order that the small portion of 
food and raiment which now goes to sustain the 
fainting, the sick, the wounded, the worn-out labour- 
er or his helpless children, may be retained to aug- 
ment the consumption and the enjoyments of those 
who never perform any toil from the hour of their 
birth to that of their death ! No objection have they 
to the marriage of these ; no objection have they to 
the feeding with rich food, and clothing in gay at- 
tire these classes ; no objection have they to the 
marrying of those, who make no increase in the 
mass of food or of raiment; they can, without any 



FORBIDDING MARRIAGE. 193 

complaint, see the offspring of these maintained in 
idleness, in great numbers; here these impious 
men can find no objection to marriage, and can dis- 
cover no evil in an increase of numbers. The 
words which God addresses to the industrious, 
they address to the idle : " Be ye fruitful and mul- 
tiply." So that, if they could have their blasphe- 
mous wishes gratified, society must come to an end, 
for the earth must remain untilled, raiment unmade, 
and houses unbuilt. 

There are, indeed, two descriptions of men, 
amongst whom, according to the word of God it- 
self, abstinence from marriage may be laudable, 
and amongst whom marriage may, in the opinions 
of some, with reason and piety be checked. The 
first of these are priests, or teachers of religion. 
Saint Paul, in 1 Cor. chap. vii. says, that it is good 
for teachers to remain unmarried: better to marry 
than give way to incontinence ; but, he strongly 
recommends, that they abide even as he ; that is to 
say, free from the enjoyments and cares of mar- 
riage. And, indeed, when the professions of men 
are, that they mortify their flesh, that they have de- 
voted their bodies to the Lord, that abstinence is a 
part of their duty towards God, that to him their 
vessels are dedicated, and when, on this account, 
they are maintained free of labour and receive 
great deference, respect and obedience, it does not 
seem unreasonable, or unjust, nay, some Christians 
insist, that it is demanded b}^ decency and piety, 
that they deny themselves all carnal enjoyments. 
To this we may add, that the priest has his flock to 
superintend; that, by the most solemn of vows, he 
' takes on him the care of souls; that his business 
is not only to preach, but to set an example of, the 
mortification of the flesh ; that he is to teach and 
17 



194 THE SIN OF 

watch over the children of others ; that he is to 
visit the sick in houses other than his own ; that, in 
short, the morals, the minds, the souls of his flock 
are committed to him ; and, that all these demand 
an absence of those domestic delights, cares and 
anxieties, which reason tells us must, in many 
cases, be but too incompatible with the diligent 
and zealous discharge of the duties of the pastor. 
Hence the urgent recommendation of the great 
apostle of the christian church to -its pastors, "to 
abide even as I ;" and, it is well known, that he 
abode unmarried, that he abstained from all wordly 
enjoyments, that he devoted himself to God, and 
that he even "worked with his hands," that he 
might have wherewith to assist the indigent.. 

How different the "doctrine of devils!" This 
doctrine proposes no check to the marriage of 
priests of any denomination. They may have 
wives, and as many, one after another, as mortality 
and choice shall afford them the opportunity of 
having. They are called upon, by these men, 
"who speak lies in hypocrisy," to practice no 
"moral restraint." No calamities are anticipated 
from the increase of their offspring, begotten in 
plenteous ease, and fed and clothed and reared and 
maintained by the labour of those vejy classes, to 
the inlligent amongst w^hom these impious men 
w^ould forbid marriage on pain of absolute starva- 
tion ! Properly so maintained, if they please, 
because agreeably to the settled laws of the land, 
to which we all owe obedience, and which we are 
all bound to support; but, if no check is demanded 
here, surely, none can be demanded on those who 
labour. 

As to the other description of persons, alluded to 
above, the Scripture does not, indeed, speaJv so 



FORBIDDING MARRIAGE. 195 

positively, bat, still, it does speak with sufficient 
clearness. If the fallen state of man has rendered 
necessary a description of persons, harsh, unfeeling 
and cruel by the habits of their calling ; a descrip- 
tion of persons 'whose food and raiment are derived 
from the miseries of others, and whose enjoymefits 
are the fruit of sorrow, who can know no harmony 
but in quarrels and in strife, whose eyes can see 
nothing in man's actions and character but what 
is criminal ; a description of persons constantly in 
search after flaws and faults, and to whose souls of 
chicane quiet possession of property and spotless 
innocence in word and deed are as the eyes of the 
basilisk : if the fallen state of man has created such 
a description of persons, it does not seem impious 
to think that human laws should interfere to pre- 
vent, or, at least, to check their increase. And, 
some have thought that this is consonant with 
ancient usage ! Look into the Books of Kings, 
Chronicles, Jeremiah and Daniel, and you will find, 
that this description of persons were disqualified to 
become husbands and fathers ; and for a very suffi- 
cient reason, namely, that, being necessarily habitu- 
ated to the practising of harshness and cruelty, they 
ought not to be permitted to produce their like, and 
to endanger thereby the hearts and minds and souls 
of a whole community. When the tyrant Ahab 
had an act of injustice to execute, the instrument 
was a person of the calling here alluded to. And, 
in the memorable case of the unfortunate Vashti, 
whom the tyrannical and capricious Ahasuerus 
turned away, stigmatised and stripped, only because 
she would not condescend to be set up in public as a 
show, we find the principal advisers and executors 
of the barbarous deed to be of that calling to which 
we are here alluding ; and, we find also, thaf the 



19t3 THE SIN OF 

persons of that calling were, by means the most ef- 
^ fectual, prevented from increasing and multiplying. 

But, do the impious preachers of the " doctrines 
of devils" wish to put a check on the increase of 
this description of persons ? Do they wish to pre- 
vent them from marrying? Do they grudge food 
and raiment, even to gluttony and drunkenness, and 
flowing robes and falling locks, to this brazen, 
bawling, mischief-hatching and pain-inflicting tribe? 
Do they call on us to put the foot on this viper's 
nest, from which spring half the miseries of human 
life? No; but on that of the harmless and indus- 
trious plover, which, without any cares, any caress- 
ing, any fostering, on our part, gives us food in due 
season, and sets us an example of gentleness, pa- 
tience and fortitude ! 

Thank God, we are not so far debased, so com- 
pletely lost to all sense of moral and religious 
feeling, so wholly divested of all that common sense 
which teaches us to refrain from acts tending to our 
own destruction, as to listen patiently to this advice, 
though pressed upon us with all the craft and all 
the malignity of Satan when he seduced our first 
parents. If we were, in evil hour, to listen to, and 
act upon, that advice, what would be the conse- 
quences? These speakers of "lies in hypocrisy" 
pretend, that the increase of the people exceeds the 
increase in food. Why do they not, then, propose 
to check the increase of those who eat and do not 
froduce, instead of those who produce what they 
themselves eat, and what is eaten by those who pro- 
duce nothing? Why do they not propose to stop 
the increase of mouths without hands? Why do 
they propose to check the increase of the labouring 
classes and propose no such check on the classes of 
idlers ? 



FORBIDDING MARRIAGE. 197 

But, this is a false pretence. They well know, 
that with the mouth come the hands ; and that, if 
labour receive its due reward, labour itself is a suffi- 
cient check on the increase of man. What they aim 
at, is to have the benefit of the labour appropriated 
solely to the use of the idlers. They would restrain 
the labourer from marrying, that they and the like 
of them might enjoy and revel in luxury by means 
of the further deductions that they would then make 
from his labour. They, foolish as well as wicked, 
would check the breed of the drudge that draws the 
plough, that more of the pasture, the corn and the hay 
may be devoured by the hunter and the racer; for- 
getting, that, in proportion as the drudge slackens 
his traces, the high-blooded breeds must cease to eat. 

Besides, if this fiend-like doctrine were adopted, 
what would be the moral consequences? What 
limits would there be to that promiscuous inter- 
course, to which the sexes would constantly,, be 
impelled by a passion implanted by nature in the 
breast of every living creature, most amiable in • 
itself, and far too strong to be subdued by any ap- 
prehensions to which the human heart is liable % 
These impious " liars and hypocrites" affect to be 
lieve, that young men and women would, out of 
fear of the law, impose on themselves " a moral 
restraint^ What, a moral restraint in defiance of 
nature, in defiance of their very organization, and 
in defiance, too, of all the commands and all the 
promises of God! Amoral restraint in defiance 
of these! The very thought is madness as well as 
impiety; and no law, founded on such a notion, 
could produce any but immoral consequences, ex- 
cept universal and just contempt and hatred of 
those who should be so foolish and so detestably 
wicked as to pass such a law. 
17* 



198 THE SIN OF 

The Book of Common Prayer of our reformed 
church declares to us, that it " is meet for Christian 
men to marry." It tells us, that "little children are 
as arrows in the hand of the giant, and blessed is 
the man that hath his quiver full of them " One of 
the principal causes of dissenting* from, and pro- 
testing against, the Church of our fathers, was, 
that it did not permit priests to marry, though the 
prohibition was, as we have before seen, sanctioned 
by, and founded on, the express and urgent recom- 
mendation of Saint Paul, who added his great 
example to the precept; and though, as w^e have 
also before seen, the recommendation was backed 
by numerous and most cogent reasons, connected 
with the diligent and zealous discharge of the duties 
of teachers of religion. There have been those 
who were of opinion, that this was, at bottom, the 
main point with many of those who made the 
reformation. But, be that as it may, it is a fact 
not to be denied, that onp great ground of objec- 
tion to the Catholic church, was, that she did not 
permit the priests to marry. And, what was the 
foundation of the objection ? Why this ; that, if 
not permitted to marry, they would, they must, be 
guilty of criminal intercourse ; for that, it was to 
suppose an impossibility, it was to set reason, 
nature and God at defiance, to suppose, that, 
without marrying, the priests could preserve their 
purity. 

This is a fact notorious in every part of the 
world whither the sound of the words Catholic and 
Protestant has reached. Well, then, if this ob- 
jection to the Catholic church were well founded, 
what becomes of the powers of that " moral re- 
straint^'' which these speakers of "lies in hy- 
pocrisy," have now, all of a sudden, discovered for 



I 



FORBIDDING MARRIAGE. 199 

the use of the whole body of the labouring classes 
of this kingdom ? If men, few in number, edu- 
cated for the purpose of the ministry, bound by the 
most solemn vows of chastity, jealous to the last 
degree for the reputation of their order, practising 
fasting and abstinence, early and late in their 
churches, visiting constantly the sick, superstitious 
in their minds, having the awful spectacle of death 
almost daily under their eyes, and clothed in a 
garb which of itself was a deep mortification and 
an antidote to passion in the beholders; if such 
men could not contain ; if it were deemed impossi- 
ble for such men to restrain themselves ; and, if this 
impossibility were one of the grounds for over- 
turning a Church that had existed amongst our 
fathers for nine hundred years, what hypocrites 
must the reformers of this church have been ! or, 
what hypocrites are those who now pretend, that 
mere " moral restrainf is, under a prohibition to 
marry, of sufficient force to preserve the innocence 
of farmers' men and maids ! 

No: adopt this impious doctrine, pass a law to 
put it in force, and all the bands of society are 
broken. Stigmatize marriage, and promiscuous 
intercourse is warranted and encouraged by law. • 
To stay the current of the natural and amiable pas- 
sions is to war against nature and against God. If 
the terms of the gratification be changed from the 
obligations of marriage to the voluntary offerings of 
affection or caprice, the indulgence can only be the 
more frequent and followed by effects more calami- 
tous. From a community of fathers, mothers and 
families of children, this kingdom, so long and so 
justly famed for kind husbands, virtuous wives, 
affectionate parents and dutiful children, will be- 
come one great brothel of unfeeling paramours, 



200 PARSONS AND TITHES. 

shameless prostitutes, and miserable homeless bas- 
tards. Such is the point at which the greedy and 
crafty speakers of "lies in hypocrisy" are aiming; 
but, to that point they will never attain as long as 
there shall remain amongst us any portion of that 
justice and humanity, which have always hereto- 
fore been inseparable from the name of England. 



ON THE 

DUTIES OF PARSONS, 

AND ON THE 

INSTITUTION AND OBJECT OF TITHES. 



" Woe to the idle Shepherd that leaveth the flock !" Zecha- 
riah, chap. xi. ver. 17. 

"Woe be to the Shepherds of Israel that do feed them- 
selves! Should not the Shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat 
the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are 
fed: but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not 
strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, 
neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither 
have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither 
have ye sought thai which was lost; but with force and with 
cruelty have ye ruled them. And they were scattered, because 
there is no shepherd." Ezekiel, chap, xxxiv. ver. 2—5. 



Blasphemy is the outcry of the day. To bias- 
pheme is to revile God. But, according to the 
modern interpretation of the word, blasphemy 
means the expressing of a disbelief in the doc- 
trines of the Christian Religion. Now, does it 



PARSONS AND TITHES. 201 

not become us to consider a little how it can be 
that this disbelief, sometimes called infidelity, can 
possibly exist in this country ? It may be ob- 
served, here, by the way, that Jews are notorious 
infidels; that they profess to ridicule the Christian 
Religion, and boastingly call its Founder an im- 
postor. Yet, we see that the Jews are not denomi- 
nated blasphemers. The Jews are not prosecuted. 
The Jews are, as we well know, a most cherished 
sect ; and are possessed of influence that can hardly 
be described. 

It is not my object, however, to defend, or to 
apologize for, the entertaining, and much less the 
promulgating, of principles of infidelity; but, to 
inquire how it can have happened, that such a con- 
tinual interference of the secular arm should have 
been necessary to check the progress of this unbe- 
lief. We believe the Christian faith to be true ; 
we believe it to have been the work of God 
himself; we believe, that by inspiration from 
Him came the Book of that faith. Now, truths 
even without any such support; clear truth is a 
thing so strong in itself, that we always firmly rely 
on its prevailing in the end. How comes it, then^ 
that a truth so important as this, and supported by 
such authority, should stand in need of the puny 
assistance of fine and imprisonment *? This would 
naturally surprise us, even if the Christian Religion 
were left unprovided witn a priesthood established 
by human laws : what, then, must our surprise be, 
when we reflect, that we have a priesthood, ap- 
pointed for the sole purpose of upholding this 
religion, and that that priesthood receive, generally 
^ speaking, a tenth part of all the produce of the 
earth; when we reflect, that the whole of our 
country is divided into small districts ; that each of 



202 PARSONS AND TITHES. 

these contains a living for a priest ; that, in each of 
these districts the priest has a church to pray and 
preach in; and that his office gives him great di- 
rect power and greater influence in secular as well 
as spiritual matters ? 

Surely an establishment like this ought to be 
adequate to the supporting of truth ; and of truth, 
too, that has the sanction of the word of God him- 
self! Surely we ought to hear of no necessity for 
the interference of lawyers, juries, judges, and 
gaolers to uphold a belief in this truth ! Yet, we 
do hear of such interference, and, indeed, we hear 
of little else ; for the cry of blasphemy resounds in 
the senate as well as in the courts ; and, if we give 
credit to all we hear, we must believe, that blas- 
phemers actually overspread the land. 

Let us, then, see, whether this inundation of infi- 
delity may not possibly be ascribable to the want of 
a full ^performance of duties on the part of this 
same priesthood. To assist us in this inquiry, let 
us first see what those duties are; and this we shall 
best ascertain by going back into the history of the 
remuneration provided for those duties ; in other 
words, into the history of those tithes, which now 
amount to such an enormous sum. Inverting the 
order in which they here stand, those are the three 
topics w^hich I mean to discuss in this discourse. 

I. I read in a Tract, called the " Hushandm-an! s 
ManuaV,'^ published by the Parson's Booksellers, 
C. and J. Rivington, for the " Society for promoting 
Christian knowledge^^ sold for twopence, and said 
to be " written by a minister in the Country for the, 
use of his parishioners,^'' the following words, put 
into the mouth of the husbandman w^hen he is 
'' setting forth his tithe i^ and I have here to beg the 
reader to observe, that these words are put into the 



PA.RSONS AND TITHES. 203 

husbandman's mouth by his Parson. — " Now I am 
setting forth God's portion ; and, as it were, offer- 
ing to him the fruits of my increase: and truly, it 
would be an ungrateful thing in me to deny Him a 
tenth part, from Avhom I receive the whole. But 
Avhy do I talk of denying it Him ? It is in truth 
robbing Him, to withhold but the least part of this, 
which the piety of our ancestors hath dedicated to 
him. Alas I it is what I never had a right to : and 
when I set forth the tithe, I give him that which 
never was mine. I never bought it in any pur- 
chase, nor do I pay for it any rent. What then % 
Shall our ancestors engross the whole reward of 
this piety? No, I am resolved to partake with 
them ; for what they piously gave, I will religiously 
pay ; and I in my heart so far approve of what 
they have done, that were it left to myself, to set 
apart what portion I myself should think fit, for 
the maintenance of God's ministers, I should take 
care that he, by whom I receive spiritual things, 
should want nothing of my temporal." 

We will not, upon an occasion like this, give 
utterance to those thoughts which are naturally 
awakened by the reading of such a passage, writ- 
ten, as the title asserts, to " advance the Glory of 
God f We will restrain ourselves, in this case, 
and suppress that indignation, an expression of 
which this insult to our understandings would fully 
warrant ; but, when blasphemy is the outcry of the 
day, we may appeal to juries and judges, whether a 
greater, more impudent mockery of the name of 
God than this, was ever printed or uttered by mor- 
tal man ! Not content with this, however, the im- 
pious man, whose writings the " Society for pro- 
moting Christian knowledge^'' sends forth, proceeds 
thus, in a species of grayer that he also puts into 



204 PARSONS AND TITHES. 

the husbandman's mouth : " Do thou therefore, 
my God, accept of this tribute which I owe Thee 
for all thy mercies. It is, I confess, thine own, 
but do thou accept of me in rendering thee thine 
own ; for thou, who searchest the hearts, knowest 
that I do it cheerfully, freely, and willingly. And 
I beseech thee to keep me in the frame of mind, 
that I may never covet any man's goods, much less 
that which is thine. Set a watch, O Lord, over 
mine eyes and hands, let them never be defiled 
with rapine and sacrilege; that so the dreadful 
curse which follow^eth the thief may never enter 
into my house to consume it. And further 1 
pray thee, that of thy mercy thou mayest so bless 
the labour of my hands, that I may have a large 
portion yearly dedicated to thy service ; and that in 
exchange for these things temporal, I may receive 
the things which are spiritual and eternal." 

Monstrous mockery ! But, let us put a few 
questions to this " Minister in the Country." We 
will not here ask him how the husbandman can be 
giving tithe in exchange for spiritual food, in those 
three cases, perhaps, out of fiye, where he seldom 
or never sees the face of the parson who receives 
the tithe ; we will not ask him that, in this place, 
because a fitter place may offer ; but, we will ask 
him on what authority he call's the tithe " God^ s 
portion;" in what part of his word God has com- 
manded any portion at all of the produce of the 
earth to be given to a Christian Priest ? Does he 
appeal to the Mosaic Law ? Why, then, does he 
not keep the Sahhath and not the Lord's day? 
why does he not kill the Pas'chal Lamb, and offer 
up burnt-offerings ? Why does he eat blood, ba- 
con, and hares 1 And, particularly, why does he 
not content himself with a tenth of the " increase,''^ 



pars6ns and tithes. 205 

and not take a tenth of the crop ; and, further, why 
does he not divide his tithe with "the poor, the 
widow, and the stranger," and not keep it all to 
himself? And, besides this, why does he not, as the 
Levites did, renounce, for himself and his child- 
ren, all other worldly possessions? " And the Le- 
vite that is within thy gates ; thou shalt not forsake 
him ; for he has no part nor inheritance with theeP 
Deut. chap. xiv. ver. 27. 

It is clear, therefore, that he has no foundation 
on the Mosaic Law; and, as to our Saviour and 
his apostles, not one word do they say to give 
countenance to such a claim ; while, on the other 
hand, they say quite enough to satisfy any man, 
that they never intended, never so much as thought 
of, such a mode of maintaining a Christian teacher. 
In the first place our Lord declares the Law of Mo- 
ses to be abrogated. He sets aside even the Sab- 
bath. And, when the Pharisee in the parable, 
vaunted that he paid tithes of all that he possessed, 
the rebuke he received is quite sufficient to show 
the degree of merit that Christ allotted to that sort of 
piety ; and, indeed, this parable seems to have been 
used for the express purpose of exposing the cun- 
ning of the then Jewish priests and the folly of their 
dupes in relying on the efficacy of paying tithes. 

But, what do we want more than the silence of 
our Saviour as to this point ? If the tenth of the 
" increase'^ (for it was not the crop, or gross pro- 
duce) was intended by him still to be given to the 
teachers of religion, would he, who was laying 
down the new law, have never said a single word 
on so important a matter ? Nay, when he was 
taking leave of his apostles and sending them foxth 
to preach his word, so far is he from talking about 
tithes^ that he bids them take neither purse nor 
18 



206 PARSONS AND TITHES. 

scrip, but to sit down with those who were willing 
to receive them, and to eat what people had a mind 
to give them, adding, that " the labourer was wor- 
thy of his hirer That is to say, of food, drink and 
lodging, while he was labouring. And is it on 
this, the only word Jesus Christ ever says about 
compensation of any sort ; is it on this that Chris- 
tian teachers found their claim to a tenth of the 
whole of the produce of a country ! If this be the 
way in which they interpret the Scriptures it is 
time indeed that we read and judge for ourselves ! 
Oh, no ! Not a word did our Saviour say about 
tithes ; not a word about rich apostles, but enough 
and enough about poor ones ; not a word about 
worldly goods, except to say, that those who wished 
to possess them could not be his disciples : enough x 
about rendering to Ccesar the things that are Cas- 
sar's, but not a word about rendering to the priests 
any thing at all. In short, from one end of the 
Gospel to the other, he preaches humility, lowli- 
ness, an absence of all desire to possess worldly 
riches, and he expressly enjoins his disciples 
''freely to give, as they had freely received.'^ 

And, as to the apostles, what did they do ? Did 
they not act according to the command of Christ ? 
Did they not live iii common in all cases where that 
was practicable ? Did they not disclaim all worldly 
possessions ? In Corinthians, chap. ix. St. Paul 
lays down the rule of compensation ; and what is 
it?' Why, that as the '*ox was not to be muzzled 
when he was treading out the corn," the teacher was 
to have food, if necessary, for his teaching, for that 
God had " ordained that they which preach the 
Gospel should live of the Gospel.'''' But, is here a 
word about tithes ? And would the apostle have 
omitted a thing of so much importance ? In an- 



PARSONS AND TITHES, 207 

other part of the same chapter, he asks : " Who 
goeth a warfare at any time at his own charges ? 
Which clearly shows, that all that was meant was 
entertainment on the way, or when the preacher 
was from home ; and, when the preaching was on 
the spot where the preacher lived, it is clear, from 
the whole of the Acts of the Apostles and from the 
whole of the Epistles, that no such thing as com- 
pensation, in any shape or of any kind, was thought 
of St. Paul, in writing to the teachers in Thessa- 
lonia, says : " Study to be quiet and do your own 
business, and to work with your own hands as we 
commojnded youP 1 Thess. chap. iv. ver 11. And 
Hgain, in 2 Thess. chap. iii. ver. 8, he bids the 
teacher remember, " Neither did we eat any man's 
bread for nought; but wrought with labour and 
travail, night and day, that we might not be charge- 
able Jo anyP 

And yet this " Minister in the Country^,'' whose 
writings the " Society for the Propagation of Chris- 
tian Knowledge^^ puts fortti, would have us believe, 
that " God has set aparf a tenth part of the whole 
of the produce of the country for the use of this 
*' Minister" and his brethren ! That, for the pre- 
sent, it is so set apart by the laws, in England, we 
know very well ; but that is quite another matter \ 
and, as we shall see by-and-by, this law has been 
changed many times, and may, of course, be changed 
again. 

Thus, then, that tithes rest upon no scriptural 
authority is a clear case ; and we have next to 
inquire into their origin and the intended use of 
them in this kingdom. 

This writer of Tracts for the " Christian Know- 
edge Society," wishing to inspire his parishioners 
with filial piety and to turn it to his own account, 



208 PARSONS AND TITHES. 

says, that the "■ 'piety of our ancestors dedicated 
tithes to God ;" and then he exclaims : " shall our 
ancestors engross the whole rewards of this piety !" 
He omits to tell his parishioners, that these '' 'pious 
ancestors" of ours were Roman Catholics, against 
whose faith he protests ; whose doctrines he calls 
idolatrous and damnable ; and from whom he and 
his fellows, and their Protestant predecessors, took 
those very tithes which those ''pious^^ believers in 
idolatrous and " damnable doctrines" dedicated to 
God ! He omits to tell his parishioners this ; but, 
leaves them to believe, that this present church was 
in existence when tithes were first introduced into 
England ; for, it would have been awkward indeed 
to extol the , piety of those from whom he and his 
fellows had taken the tithes away I But, it becomes 
us, who are about to inquire whether the present 
clergy perform their duties, to go back to this con- 
duct of these ''pious ancestors;" for, there, in the 
motives for instituting tithes, we shall find lohat 
those duties ivere expected to he ; and, in fact, what 
those duties now are. 

We have seen that tithes rest on no scriptural 
authority ; and we have now to see how they came 
to exist in England, into which Christianity was 
not introduced until 600 years after the birth of 
Christ. In the meanwhile it had made its way 
over the greater part of the continent of Europe, 
and the Pope of Rome, as the successor of St. Pe- 
ter, had long been the head of the Church. In the 
year 600 the then Pope, whose name was Gregory, 
sent a monk, whose name was Austin, with 40 
others under him, from Rome to England, to con- 
vert the English. They landed in Kent, and the 
king of Kent (there were several kingdoms " iri 
England then) received them well, became a con • 



PARSONS AND TITHES. 209 

vert, and built houses for them at Canterbury. 
The monks went preaching about Kent, as our 
missionaries do amongst the Indians. They lived 
in common, and on what people gave them. As 
the Christian religion extended itself over the 
country, other such assemblages of priests as that 
at Canterbury were formed ; but these being found 
insufficient, the lords of great landed estates built 
churches and parsonage houses on them, and en- i 
dowed them with lands and tithes after the mode 
in fashion on the Continent. The estate, or dis- 
trict, allotted to a church, now became a 'parish ; 
and in time, dioceses arose, and the division became, 
as to territory, pretty much what it is now. 

Here, then, we learn the motives of " our pious 
ancestors" in making these endowments of tithes. 
They wished to have a priest always at hand to 
teach the ignorant, to baptize children, to visit the 
sick, to administer comfort, to be the peace-maker, 
the kind friend and the guide of his people. Nor 
were these tithes to be devoured or squandered by 
the priests. They were divided thus : " Let the 
Priests receive the tithes of the people, and keep a 
written account of all that have paid them ; and 
divide them, in the presence of such as fear God, 
according to canonical authority. Let them set 
apart the first share for the building and ornaments 
of the church ; and distribute the second to the poor 
and strangers with their own hands, in mercy and 
humility ; and reserve the third part for themselvesJ^ 
Elfric's Canons, 24th. 

These were the intentions of " our pious ances- 
tors ;" and this brings us to the second topic of my 
aiscourse ; namely, the Duties of the Parsons. 

ll. The very motives for building churches and 
endowing them with tithes prove, that che constant 
18^ 



210 PARSONS AND TITHES. 

residence of the priest, or parson, in his parish -vt^as 
his first duty ; for, what was the endowment for 
else ? And, I state, upon authority as good as any 
that history can present, that for nearly five hun- 
dred ye<irs after the introduction of Christianity, 
no such custom prevailed in England as of hiring 
curates, or other deputies, to supply the place of the 
parson who had the living. Our ''pious ancestors'* 
were, therefore, sensible as well as pious : they re- 
quired duties in return for what they settled on the 
parsons. These parsons were, besides, let it be 
remembered, unmarried men; and if we are to 
impute (and which in justice we ought) the institu- 
tion of tithes to the piety of our ancestors, we must 
also impute to their piety the establishing of a priest- 
hood not permitted to marry! We must impute 
this to their piet}^ and, indeed, to their wisdom 
also ; for how obvious are the reasons that the tithes 
never could be applied according to the intention 
of the founders, if the priests had wives and fami- 
lies to maintain ! 

Thus, then, if we be to appeal to our pious ances- 
tors, and pious and praiseworthy we must allow 
them to have been ; if the " Society for Propagating 
Christian Knowledge" will insist upon referring 
us to these our ancestors as examples for us to fol- 
low as to this great matter of tithes, we have to 
remind it and the parsons of these eight things : — 
1. That the doctrines of the Catholic Church, 
which our pious ancestors endowed with the tithes, 
are, by our present parsons, declared to be idola 
trous and damnable. — 2. That our parsons call the 
head of that church Antichrist and the whore of 
Babylon. — 3. That this same " Society for propa- 
gation of Christian Knowledge^^ advertise no less 
thajo. fourteen separate works written by our bibhopa 



PARSONS AND TITHES. 211 

snd archbishops " against Popery," that is to say 
against that very faith to support which our pious 
ancestors instituted tithes. — 4. That we may be 
allowed to wonder how it can have come to pass, 
that, as the errors of our pious ancestors were found, 
at the end of eleven hundred years, to be so damna- 
ble, the tithes which they granted were not at all 
erroneous, but, as this parson now tells us, were 
*' dedicated to God /" — 5. That our pious ancestors 
gave only a third of the tithes to the parsons. — 6. 
That they required the parson to expend a third on 
the building and ornaments of the church. — 7. That 
they required him to distribute the other third to 
the poor and the stranger with his own hands in 
mercy and humility. — And, 8. That they required 
him to be constantly resident and not to marry, 
and compelled him to take an oath of celibacy, in 
order that, dive&ted of the cares and anxieties insepa- 
rable from a wife and family, he might wholly 
devote himself to the service of God, and be in very 
truth that which the Bible, from one end to the 
other, requires a priest to be, a faithful and diligent 
shejpherd of the religious flock : and, for being which 
merely in name, such woes are pronounced against 
priests both by prophets and apostles. 

Of these eight things we have to remind the 
parsons, when they tell us to look at the conduct of 
our pious ancestors ; and especially whea they tell 
us to follow the example of those ancestors with 
regard to tithes. These were the conditions on 
which the tithes were given, and this might be truly 
said to be dedicating them to God. Accordingly 
we find, that, as long as the tithes were applied to 
these purposes, there were no poor-rates ; no va- 
grant act was required ; no church-rates were de- 
manded of the people ; and yet all those magnifi- 



212 PARSONS AND TITHES. 

cent cathedrals and those churches were built, the 
beauty and solidity of which are now the monu- 
ments of their great, and of our' little, minds. 

But, above all things, when our parsons bid us 
look at the piety of our ancestors in this article of 
tithes, we ought to bear in mind, that the parson of 
our ancestors r'emai7ied always with hisjiock; that 
he was allowed to hire no substitute ; that he could 
have but one living; and, indeed, that he could 
never change from one to another,hui must remain 
for life with the church to which he was first ap- 
pointed. The Canons of our pious ancestors said 
this : " Let no priest remove for gain from one 
church to another, but ever continue in that, to 
which he was ordained, so long as he lives." 

This was truly being a shepherd ; and, as the 
parson could have no family of his own, his flock 
had the whole of his cares, and, indeed, his share of 
the tithes was necessarily expended in his parish. 
Will the " Society for the Propagation of Christian 
Knowledge" say that this is the case now ? Will 
they say, that the parsons now constantly reside on 
their livings, and that their time and tithes are 
wholly spent anaongst their parishioners ? If they 
cannot say this, let them and the parsons cease to 
remind us of our pious ancestors, lest we remind 
them of the conduct of the parsons of those ances- 
tors. Indeed, it would be prudent in the present 
parsons never to remind us either of those ancestors 
or of their conduct as to matters of religion ; be- 
cause, it is impossible for us, if so minded, not to 
make comparisons ; and, especially when we are 
bidden to look back to those ancestors for an exam- 
ple to follow in matters of this sort ; it is impossible 
for us not to perceive a most monstrous inconsist- 
ency in this eulogium on our ancestors, when com- 



PARSONS AND TITHES. 213 

pared with the assertions of our parsons as to 
the errors, the idolatry/, the damnableness, of the 
doctrines, in which those ancestors, during a pe- 
riod of eleven hundred years, lived and died ! 
We see our parsons, upon every occasion that of- 
fers, opposing even the smallest proposed relaxation 
of the laws which so sorely oppress our Catholic 
fellow subjects ; that is to say, those who have re- 
mained, through three hundred years of persecu- 
tions, steady in the faith of their and our pious an- 
cestors. We see our parsons resisting with might 
and main every measure proposed for relieving the 
Catholics from any of the restraints that have been 
imposed upon them, or any of the pains and penal- 
ties to which they have been kept continually ex- 
posed. We see our parsons yielding readily enough 
to the free toleration of those who deny the divinity 
of Christ, who laugh at baptism and the sacrament 
of the Lord's supper ; but, as to those who adhere 
to the faith of our pious ancestors, to these our par- 
sons will grant no indulgence. They are so watch- 
ful as to these, that when some Catholic ladies 
proposed to keep a school at Winchester, our par- 
sons called for an act of parliament, and obtained 
it, to prevent those ladies from taking Protestant 
children into their school, lest those children should 
be converted to that very faith which was held by 
our pious ancestors, who founded the churches in 
which our parsons preach, and who endowed those 
churches with the tithes that our parsons now re- 
ceive ; and, observe, for which endowment our 
parsons extol them to the heavens, call them pious, 
call them wise, while, at the very same moment, 
they assert, that the bare fact of a man's holding 
firm to the faith of those pious and wise ancestors 
ought to be considered as a disqualification for pla- 



214 PARSONS AND TITHES. 

cei> Df trust or for the making of laws ! Aye, and 
while they assert this of the faith of our pious an- 
cestors, they tell us, through the medium of their 
" Society for promoting Christian Knowhdge,^^ 
that those who gave the tithes to uphold that faith 
"dedicated them to GodT 

The human heart is capable of strong feelings, 
the human tongue of strong expressions ; but, did 
heart ever feel, did tongue ever utter, indignation 
adequate to this monstrous inconsistency ? 

But, is it not worth our while, even if it were only 
for the curiosity of the thing, to inquire how the 
tithes, dedicated to a faith which our parsons hold 
in abhorrence, came to be possessed hy our parsons ? 
Is it not worth our while to inquire, how it came to 
pass, that, when our parsons found the faith of our 
ancestors so erroneous as to be called idolatrous 
and damnable ; when they found the faith so bad as 
to require rooting out even by most cruel penal 
laws ; how it came to pass, that, when they found 
the faith so utterly abominable ; how it came to 
pass, that when they were pulling down images, 
confessionals and altars, and were sweeping away all 
the other memorials of the faith of our pious ances- 
tors, they should have suffered the parsonage-houses, 
the glebes, the tithes, and even Easter Offerings to 
remain, nay, and have taken these to themselves, and 
to be enjoyed, too, not in third part, but in whole ? 

This is a very interesting matter, and an inquiry 
into it will naturally lead me, by-and-by, to my third 
and concluding topic, namely, whether the present 
parsons perform the duties which were in the con- 
templation of those who endowed the Church with 
tithes, and whether the alleged infidelity of the 
day, may not possibly be ascribable to the want of 
a performance of those duties. 



PARSONS AND TITHES. 215 

The tithes were, as we have seen, given to, and 
enjoyed, or, rather, administered by, the Catholic 
priests for about eleven out of the fourteen hundred 
years of their existence in England. For the first 
five out of the eleven, no such thing as non-resi- 
dence, or stipendiary curating, was known. After 
the Normans invaded England these things began ; 
and, in time, by one means or another, by kings and 
nobles, the parishes were greatly robbed of their 
tithes, and miserable vicars and curates were placed 
in the Churches in numerous cases. At last that 
event which is called the Reformation took place ; 
and, the struggle ended in the overthrow of the 
Catholic and the establishment of the Protestant 
Church, that is to say, a Church which protests 
against the Catholic faith, to uphold which the 
tithes had been instituted. 

The new parsons, though they protested against 
the faith of the Catholic priests, did by no means 
protest against the tithes which had been granted 
to uphold it. They professed to keep all that was 
good, and to cast off all that was bad, of the old 
church. What was good and what bad, we laymen 
may, perhaps, not be competent judges of; but we 
know that they kept very carefully all the parson- 
age-houses, all the glebes, all the tithes, all the 
Easter Offerings, all the surplice fees ; and that they 
cast 0^ constant residence, division of tithes into 
thirds, keeping the churches in repair, living un- 
married, and relieving the poor and the stranger 
with their own hands in mercy and humility. 
Such, indeed, was their keeping and such their 
casting off, that the Catholics said, that protestant 
parson meant a person who protested against any- 
body having the Church property but himself! 
.. Our ''pious ancestors" complained most bitterly 



216 PARSONS AND TITHE». 

of, and several times rose in arms against, ihia 
*' Reformation,^^ which,- during its progress, cost 
many thousands of them their lives in the field and 
on the gallows and the scaffold, amongst the latter 
of whom were Fisher, bishop of Rochester, and 
Sir Thomas More, Lord High Chancellor, who 
were regarded as two of the most learned as well 
as most virtuous men of their age. However, the 
rulers prevailed at last, and, by Act of Parliament 
after Act of Parliament, the protestant Church, " as 
by law established,^'' became what it now is, allow- 
ing the parsons to marry, giving them the whole 
of the tithes, leaving the Churches to be repaired 
and the poor to be relieved at the expense of the 
parishioners, and as to the " strangers,^'' whom our 
" pious ancestors" ordered the parson to relieve 
" with his own hands in mercy and humility," they, 
as we well know, are now left to be dealt with by 
constables and beadles and keepers of bridewells. 
No higher than this, therefore, can the present 
parsons go for any of their claims. They can go 
no higher than the reign of Harry the Eighth, 
who cast off some of his wives and killed others of 
them. The Acts of Parliament passed in his reign 
give them their rights ; and hence it is, that they 
take care to call theirs " the Church of England 
as by law established^ This is right enough. 
We know well, that they have law; that they have 
Acts of Parliament, for possessing what was origi- 
nally given to a Church against which they pro- 
test ; and we know also, that it would be no " sa- 
crilege^'' if the Parliament were to take away that 
which it had the power to transfer ; nay, we know, 
that the Parliament can, and do, take away part ot 
what is called the Church Property w^henever it, 
in its wisdom, deems it meet to do so ; and we know, 



^ PARSONS AND TITHES. 217 

that it, not long ago, did take away part of it for ever 
by the law for what was called the redemption of the 
land-tax. Of coarse, that sacrilege, which the " So- 
ciety for promoting Christian Knowledge" talks of 
is no sacrilege at all ; and the Parliament can dispose 
of this property how it pleases and when it pleases ; 
and can, if it please, apply the whole to public uses, 
such as those of paying off the Debt, supporting 
the crown, carrying on war, or any thing else. 

In the meanwhile, hov^rever, and until it shall 
please the Parliament to do, in its wisdom and in 
accordance with the prayers of the people, some- 
thing of this sort, we allow, we must, in the most 
unqualified iftnse, allow, that the parsons have law 
for what they claim. But, in allowing this, we in 
the same unqualified manner, deny that they have 
any claim at all except that which is founded on 
the acts of the Parliament. We deny, that they 
have any claim, founded on the Mosaic law, or on 
the Gospel, or on the Epistles, or on the motives, 
intentions, or usages of our pious ancestors, who 
endowed the Church with tithes and other things; 
and, therefore, it only remains for us to inquire 
what duties were imposed on the present parsons 
by the laws which transferred the tithes to them ; 
and then we shall see something of how those du- 
ties have been performed, and shall be, in conclu- 
sion, the better able to form a judgment as to the 
great object of this discourse ; namely, whether the 
present alleged inundation of infidelity may not 
possibly be ascribable to the want of a full perform- 
ance of those duties. 

We have seen, that the new laws dispensed with 

the important duty of remaining unmarried ; that 

they did not require the parson to keep the church 

in repair and to divide his income with the poor 

19 



218 PARSONS AND TITHES. 

and the stranger ; but, though the new laws allowed 
of pluralities and non-residence, to a very great ex- 
tent, still they did enjoin residence except in certain 
cases expressly " by law established ;" and, they 
provided, that, if a parson should be absent from his 
living for a certain length of time, he should be lia- 
ble, on information being laid against him, to pay 
a penalty o^ so much a month for the tim^ of his 
absence. This was, to a certain extent, an obliga- 
tion to reside at any rate. If a man had one living, 
he was to reside upon it; and if more than one, he 
was to reside upon one of them. No very great 
hardship, one would think, for the ''^hepherd^^ to 
be where the ''flock^'' was. We will say nothing 
at all here about the manner of taking care of the 
flock, but, we may, I think, insist, that the flock 
could not have much benefit from the shepherd, if 
the shepherd did not, for a long time together, go 
near the place where the flock was ! That, I think, 
we may venture to assert. 

Well, then, let us now see how the law, even the 
new and relaxed law, was, as to this matter, observed 
by the parsons of our Protestant Church ; and, this 
brings us to my third concluding topic. 

III. Whether the present inundation of infidel- 
ity may not possibly he ascribahle to the want of a 
full performance of duties on the part of the 
parsons. Now, on the ground just stated, I shall 
suppose it taken for granted, that, if the parson do 
not live where the flock lives, he can be of no use 
to it, either in inculcating the faith, or in checking 
the progress of infidelity ; and, besides this, when 
the flock see him set his duties, his obligations, his 
solemn engagements, and the commands and denun- 
ciations of God ; when the flock sees the pastor set 
all these at open defiance, is there not good reason to 



PARSONS AND TITHES. 219 

fear, that the flock will begin to go astray, to wan- 
der from the faith, to doubt greatly of the trutb of 
the thing altogether ; in short, to become unbeliev- 
ers, oV infidels : and in the fashionable language of 
the day, blasphemers? 

The prophet Zechariah, in the words of a part 
of my text, has, manifestly, such a resuh in his eye 
•when he cries, " Woe on the shepherd that leaveth 
his flock." And the prophet Ezekiel, in the other 
parts of my text, clearly means to impress the same 
thing on the minds of the priests. What, indeed, 
can be more just, than that woe should fall upon 
those, who ''eat the fat and clothe themselves with 
the wooF' but who feed not the flock! Who 
strengthen not the diseased, who heal not the sick, 
who bring back not those that have been driven 
away, who seek not the lost, but who, " rule the 
flock with force and with cruelti/ r Must not 
the flock be scattered, in such a case? Must they 
not wander ? And, as to the shepherds, *' Thus 
saith the Lord God ; behold I am against the shep- 
herds ; and I will require my flock at their hand, 
and cause them to cease feeding the flock; neither 
shall the shepherds feed themselves any more : for 
I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they 
may not be meat for them." 

Nor are Christ and his Apostles silent upon this 
great subject. Paul, in writing to Timothy, says : 
" Preach the word ; be instant in season, out of 
season ; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suf- 
fering and doctrine." The Apostle tells the teach- 
ers to teach publicly " from house to house ; to show 
themselves in all things patterns of good works ; to 
be examples in word, in conversation, in charity, in 
faith, in purity ; to warn every man, to teach every 
man in wisdom, that they may present every man 



220 PARSONS AND TITHES. 

perfect m Jesus Christ." The teachers of the gos 
pel are called Ambassadors, Stewards, Shepherds, 
Watchmen, Guides, Lights, Examples. But, how 
are they to be any of these, if they seldom or never 
see any of those, whom they have pledged them- 
selves to teach ? 

Jesus Christ says, " Go ye into all the world, 
and preach the Gospel unto every creature ; and, 
io ! I am with you always, even unto the end of 
the world." And the apostle Paul, amongst his nu- 
merous urgent and solemn exhortations says, in 
Acts, chap. XX. ver. 27. " I take you to record this 
day, that I am pure from the blood of all men ; for 
I have shunned not to declare unto you the counsel 
of God. Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, 
and to all the flock over w^hich the Holy Ghost 
hath made you overseers, to faed the Church of 
God, which he hath purchased with his own blood." 
And he exhorts, too, that the teachers should do 
their duty for religion sake, and not for the sake of 
gain. A Bishop is not to be " greedy of filthy 
lucre, nor covetous.'''' — 1 Tim. chap. iii. ver. 3. And 
the same in Titus, chap. i. ver. 7. And Peter,' 
in Epist. 1. chap. v. ver. 2. has this exhortation, 
which ought to be written on the heart of every 
Christian teacher. *' Peed the flock of God w^hich is 
among you, taking the oversight thereof, not hj 
constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of 
a ready mind. Neither as being lords over God's 
heritage, but being examples to the fiock. And, 
when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall re- 
ceive a crown of glory that fadeth not away." 

What then ! Can we, with all this before us, be- 
lieve, that a parson does his duty, if he do not even 
reside in the same place with his flock? And, when 
we see a man taking the income of two or three 



PARSONS AND TITHES. 221 

livings, and seldom or never go near either of 
them, are we still to look upon him as a follov^er of 
the apostles, and entitled to the respect and rever- 
ence that is due to their memories and names ? I 
w^ill say not a single word about the morals of our 
parsons ; about the way in which the greater part 
of them spend their time ; about the worldly affairs 
in which they are most frequently busied ; about 
the part which many of them take in political mat- 
ters, and especially in elections : I confine myself, 
solely to my text ; and I say, that he who takes 
charge of a flock, and does not remain with that 
flock, subjects himself to the woes there denounced 
against the unfaithful shepherd. 

But, there is, besides the injunctions of Scrip- 
ture, a positive promise, which the parsons make to 
God, at the time of their ordination. " They pro- 
fess, that they are inwardly moved by the Holy- 
Ghost, to take upon them this office and adminis^ 
tration, to serve God for the promoting of his glory 
and the edifying of his people.'''' They declare al- 
so at their ordination, " that they are determined with 
the Scriptures to instruct the people that shall' he 
committed' to their charge; they pi omise that they 
will give their faithful diligence always so to mi- 
nister the doctrine and sacraments and' the disci- 
pline of Christ, as the Lord hath commanded, and 
as this realm hath received the same according to 
the commandment of God ; that they will teach the 
people committed to their cure and charge with all 
diligence to keep and observe the same, that they 
will he ready tvith all faithful diligence to banish 
and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines 
contrary to God^ sword ; and to use public and pri- 
vate admonitions and exhortations, as well lo the 
sick as to the whole, within their cures, as need 
19* 



222 PARSONS AND TITHES. 

shall require and occasion be given ; that they will 
be diligent in the prayers and in the reading of the 
Holy Scriptures, and in such studies as help to the 
knowledge of the same, laying aside the study of 
the world and the flesh ; that they will be diligent 
to frame and fashion themselves and their families 
according to the doctrine of Christ, that they may 
be wholesome examples and spectacles to the flock 
of Christ ; and that they will maintain and set for- 
wards quietness, peace and love among all Chris- 
tians, but, specially among them that are or shall 
he committed to their charge.'''' And they most so- 
lemnly ratify and confirm these declarations and 
promise hy receiving the holy communion. 

Now, how are they to do these things, or, indeed, 
any part of these things, unless they be at the pla- 
ces where they have so solemnly promised to do 
them? How are they to promote God's glory and 
edify his people ; how are they to instruct the peo- 
ple committed to their charge ; how are they to ex- 
plain the word to the people of their cure ; how are 
they to be ready with faithful diligence to banish 
and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrine 
contrary to God's word, and especially from amongst 
them that are committed to their charge : how are 
they to fulfil any of these solemn promises, if they 
absent themselves from the very spot where the peo- 
ple committed to their charge reside ? And, if, hav- 
ing already one living, they grasp at another or 
two, how do they obey the injunction of the apostle, 
to avoid filthy lucre ; how do they obey Christ, 
who b^'ds them freely give; how do they fulfil 
their own promise, made at the ahar and with such 
awful solemnity, to lay aside the study of the worlds 
and how do they show themselves followers of thq 
Apostle, who bids them "be subject one to another. 



PARSONS AND TITHES. 223 

atxd be clothed with humility, seeing- that God re- 
sisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble?" 

That this possessing of two or more, benefices by 
one parson is common in England and Ireland is 
notorious ; though the full extent of it we are una- 
ble, without great labour, exactly to ascertain. And, 
as to non-residence, as to absence from the flocks, 
what do we need more than this; that, in '1799, a 
gentleman laid informations, according to law, 
against great numbers of parsons for absence from 
their flocks, and, of course, sued for the penalties 
in which he was to share. Now, would not one 
naturally suppose, that the clergy in general would 
have been glad of this ? The fact, however, is, that 
they obtained a law to be passed first to suspend, 
then to quash, these legal proceedings : and, finally, 
an act was passed, w^hich set aside, as to its most 
important provisions, that very act of Henry the 
Eighth, by which, in great measure, this Establish- 
ment was founded? Since that act, who is there 
that has thought it worth his while to say anything 
at all upon the subject? And yet this " Society for 
promoting Christian Knowledge" w^ould have us 
look upon tithes, in their present shape, amount, 
and application, to have been, " by our pious an- 
cestors, dedicated to God /" 

In Ireland the case is, if possible, still worse, and 
it is in that country the cause of still greater scan- 
dal as well as irritation, because there the great 
body of the people have, in spite of ail that has been 
done to make them change, still adhered to the 
faith and worship of their and our "pious ancestors," 
who, in dedicating tithes to the Catholic Church, 
did, as the Society tells us, " dedicate them to God." 
In that now unhappy country, the tithes are ga- 
thered, in numerous cases, for the benefit of a clergy 



224 PARSONS AND TITHES. 

that are not only non-resident, but that 'protest 
against the faith and worship of a very great part 
of those from whom the tithes are taken ! Was this 
the intention of " our pious ancestors V Was it 
the intention even of the acts of Henry the Eighth % 
To conclude, (for, surely, more than enough has 
been said,) as we see that the parsons so solemnly 
promise, at their ordination, to " be ready with faith- 
ful diligence to banish and drive away all errone- 
ous and strange doc trine, ^^ and as it is a fact so no- 
torious, that a very great part of them do not reside 
at all either amongst, or near, the people committed 
to their charge, is it not a rational and fair conclu- 
sion, that, if the land be inundated by infidelity, this 
sorrowful effect may possibly be ascribable to tlie 
want of a full performance of the duties of the par- 
sons? To deny this ; to say at an}^ rate, that this 
cannot be, would be to deny the utility of the priest- 
hood altogether. Besides (and this is the great 
poi?it of all,) if the flock, who have also the Scrip- 
tures before them ; if they see, that the parson acts 
as if he wholly disregarded the commands and de- 
nunciations therein contained ; if they see, that he 
is so far from watching over the fold, that he never 
sees it ; if they know that he feeds not the flock, 
w^hile he eats the fat and clothes himself with the 
wool ; if they see filthy lucre in all his acts ; if they 
see, that he heals not the sick, binds not the broken, 
brings not back the driven away, seeks not the lost, 
but rules the whole with force and cruelty, setting 
himself up as a lord over them, instead of being an 
example to the flock in humility; if they see in him 
a shepherd described by the prophet Zpchariah, 
(chap. xi. ver. 17.) will they not, with the prophet, 
exclaim, " Woe to the idle shepherd that leaveth 
the flock!" And, if they see him, laying by the 



PARSONS AND TITHES. 225 

word and resorting to the employment of temporal 
power, will they not proceed, in the words of the 
prophet, to complete the picture : "the sword shall 
be upon his right ai'm and upon his right eye, and 
his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye 
shall be darkened?" 

A great judge of the workings of the human 
heart says to the poet : "to make me weep you must 
weep yourself.''^ And, assuredly, to make men be- 
lieve, you must act as if you yourself believed. 
This is the great and constant subject of the many 
and impressive injunctions of the apostles to the dis- 
ciples and elders. It was suggested by a know- 
ledge of the universal practice, habits and feelings 
of mankind, which tells us, that, when we have du- 
ties to inculcate, a single example is worth a thou- 
sand precepts. To make men believe that the 
tempting bowl is poisoned, you must, at the least, 
abstain from the drinking of it yourself Belief is 
an act of the mind, to be produced by persuasion, 
and not by force ; by leading and not by driving. 
If those, who teach, lead the way, prove their faith 
by their works, make religion captivating by their 
example, be faithful shepherds, feed the flock, then 
will there be no need of lawyers, juries and judges ; 
but, if they do, and be, none of these ; if they feed 
not the flock, but eat the fat and clothe themselves 
with the wool ; if they set at nought and bring 
scandal upon all the precepts ' and upon all the ex- 
amples of those of whom they profess to be the fol- 
lowers, if, in a word, they prove by their lives, that 
they themselves do not believe that which they would 
punish others for not believing, lawyers will plead, 
juries convict, and judges condemn, in vain. 



GOOD FRIDAY; 

OB, I 

THE MURDER OP JESUS CHRIST BY THE JEWS. 



"Now, son of man, wilt thou judge the bloody city 7 Then 
say thou. Thus saith the Lord God : The city sheddeth blood 
in the midst of it : therefore have I made it a reproach to all 
the heathen, and a mocking to all countries. Those that be 
near thee, and those that be far from thee, shall mock thee, 
which art infamous. In thee have they dealt by oppression 
with the stranger, and have vexed the fatherless and the wi- 
dow. Behold, the princes of Israel, every one were in thee to 
their power to shed blood. In thee have they taken gifts to 
shed blood : thou hast taken usury and increase, and hast 
greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion ; behold there- 
fore, I have smitten my hand at thy dishonest gain, and at thy 
blood, which has been in the midst of thee ; and I will scat- 
ter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee in the coun- 
tries ; and thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself in the 
sight of the nation."— Ezekiel, chap. xxii. ver. 2 to 15. 



Of all tlie days set apart by Christians, to be 
observed with special marks of solemnity, this has 
ever been distinguished from the rest as meriting 
more than ordinary proofs of their gratitude towards 
God ; this being the anniversary of that day on 
which the blasphemous inhabitants of the " bloody 
city" put the Author of Christianity to the most 
cruel of deaths. On this day, therefore, we are 
called upon to show this gratitude not so much by 
the putting on of mourning, by the desisting from 
worldly occupations, or by any other outward signs 
of woe, as by reflecting, and communicating to each 
other our reflection, on the transactions of the day; 
on their effects with regard to ourselves j on the 



GOOD-FRIDAY. 227 

obligations which those effects impose upon us; 
and on the awful consequences of our disregarding 
those obligations. 

As to the transactions offhe day, they consisted 
of a savage murder, committed after long piemedi- 
tation ; effected by hypocrisy, and bribery and per- 
jury; accompanied with scorn and mockery of the 
innocent sufferer ; and proceeding from motives the 
basest an>d blackest that ever disgraced the hearts 
of even that reprobate people Avhom Cxod, by the 
mouths of the prophets, has appropriately denomi- 
nated '^ filth, and dross, and sciim,^^ and whom he 
has doomed, as in the words of my text, to be " dis- 
persed in the countries," and to have no inherit- 
ance except in their OAvn bodies, on which also he 
has set his mark of reprobation, making them " a 
mocking to all countries/' 

The life of Jesus Christ had been one of un- 
mixed goodness ; of spotless innocence ; of bright 
example. He went about healing the sick, com- 
forting the afflicted, preaching patience, forgiveness 
of injuries, disinterestedness, charity, peace on 
earth, and good will amongst men ; but, above all 
things, an abstaining from extortion, an abstaining 
from oppression of the poor, the fatherless, and the 
widow. But, alas ! this was the very thing whicli 
gave offence to a people vv^ho were living in all the 
filthiness of" usury and increase;" and who, though 
themselves the slaves of a Roman despot, Avho had 
absolute power over their parses, seem to have 
had no passion other than that for accumulating 
money; a passion which has come doAvn, un- 
impaired, to their descendants, who, while they 
have been *' a mocking to all countries," have 
been, at the same time, a scourge to every country 
that has had the weakness and the wickedness to 



228 ^OOD-FRIDAY. 

encourage any thing approaching towards feh 
lowship with this scattered and wandering and 
greedy race. 

The offence of our^Baviour was, not his pro- 
claiming himself the King of the Jews, as was 
falsely alleged, but his going into the Temple, and 
overturning the tables of the money-changers, say- 
ing, " It is written, My house shall be a house 
of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves." 
This was his real offence, in the eyes of this peo- 
ple, whom God had, by the prophets, denounced, on 
account of their crafty and merciless extortions and 
oppressions. " Thou hast taken usury and in- 
crease, and hast greedily gained of thy neighbours 
by extortion." (Ezekiel, chap. xxii. v. 12.) This 
was his offence in the eyes of the Jews, who when 
they heard him (Luke, chap. vi. v. 35) give the pre- 
cept, "-Lend, hooping for nothing thereby ;" that is, 
for no gain on the loan ; when they heard him 
preach doctrine like this, they instantly began to 
conspire against his life. For what offence could 
they take at his calling himself their king, even if 
he had done that ? Their country was conquered ; 
they were the slaves of a deputy despot from Rome; 
they had no notions of allegiance, of independence, 
of civil or political rights; they were, as the pro- 
phets had so clearly foretold they would be, " tram- 
pled on by the heathen," and were " the captives of 
the ungodly." They were a mass of contented 
slaves of those who worshipped J upiter and Mars. 
They cared nothing about who waa their king, 
who gave them laws, or to whom they paid tribute, 
so that they were but permitted to carry on their 
nefarious practices of usury and extortion ; and it 
is truly surprising how closely this character has 
adhered to them to the present day, there not being 



GOOD-FRIDAY. 229 

one single instance on record in which they have 
not, when the occasion offered, been the willing" 
instruments of oppressors and tyrants, if those op- 
pressors and tyrants gave free scope to their ex^ 
tortions. 

Therefore, the offence committed against them 
by Jesus Christ, was his reprobating their ex- 
tortions ; for this they plotted against his life, and 
for this they finally effected his death, by means of 
a series of atrocities, the least of v/hich would, in 
the words of the prophet, have made them ever- 
lastingly " infamous." The]?- resorted to the means 
never made use of but by the basest and most cruel 
of tyrants : first, they bribed one of his followers to 
betray him into their hands ; next, they got the aid 
of the despot and his soldiers ; next, having brought 
him before the judge, they brought, by means of 
bribes, perjured witnesses to swear against him ; 
having procured his condemnation, in spite of the 
judge's conviction of his innocence, and evidently, 
therefore, by bribery here also, they put him to 
the death, at once the most cruel and most degra- 
ding. Having^ obtained the sanction of the base 
and corrupt heathen judge, who, while he called 
him " a just ferson,^^ and declared that he " found 
710 fault in him," and "washed his hands" of the 
murder, scourged him, and gave him up to be mur- 
dered ; having obtained the sanction of this bribed 
and unfeeling hypocrite, and having the swords 
and pikes of hardened soldiers to protect them 
against the interference of the just and humane 
part of the people ; thus sanctioned and thus pro- 
tected, the malignant and cowardly persecutors, not 
content with inflicting death, accompanied the in- 
fliction with every addition that innate, inveterate, 
and hellish cruelty could suggest. They put, in 
20 



230 GOOD-FRIDAY. 

mockery, a crown of thorns upon his head, a royal 
iobe over his shoulders, and a reed for a sceptre 
in his hand ; they buffeted him, spat upon him, 
jibed and reviled him ; and having exhausted their 
ingenuity in the infliction of indignities, and in can- 
nibal-like exultations over the meek, patient, unof- 
fending, and unresisting victim of their malice, they 
dragged him without the city, and fixed him on the 
cross by nails driven through his hands and hin 
feet, there to suffer, amidst their still-continued 
mockery and scoffing, all the pains and anguish 
of the most cruel death ; and, as if all this w^ere 
not sufficient, they nailed up two thieves, 6ne on his 
right hand, one on his left, in order that by impli- 
cation and inference, his memory might rank along 
with that of the most infamous malefactors. 

Such were the transactions of the day which we 
are now assembled to commemorate. Every hu- 
man being must feel it to be a duty to speak of those 
transactions with abhorrence ; but I am here ad- 
dressing myself to Christians ; to all those of my 
countrymen, who, under whatever denomination, 
profess to be of the religion of Jesus Christ. All 
these profess to believe, that their salvation will be 
owing to the merits of Jesus Christ, whom, there- 
fore, we emphatically call " our Saviour." They 
believe that he suffered death in order that they 
might have eternal life. Deists deny this; and 
yet affect to believe in a future slate of life. They 
shudder at the thought of annihilation ; they can- 
not endure the idea of becoming so many clods of 
earth ; and yet, if not in the Gospel of Christ, 
where do they find anp ground for believing, thai 
to become a senseless clod is not the doom of man f 

However, I am not speaking to unbelievers, but 
to professors of Christianity, whose btdief is, 



GOOD-FRIDAY. 2Lll 

that no one can be saved on his own merits : that 
all must be saved, if saved they be, on account of 
the merits of Jesus Christ ; that the atonement 
for them was made by him ; that it is their duty to 
obey his precepts to the utmost of their power : and 
that, above all things, it is their duty to be grateful 
to him for the sufferings which, for their sakes, he 
endured on the day of which this is tlie anniver- 
sary. 

But the obligations which are imposed on us by 
the transactions of this memorable and awful day, 
are not confined to cold and formal expressions of 
gratitude, to mere outward ceremony, to the mere 
use of voice and gesture, or the putting on of parti- 
cular garbs : a mourning coat or cloak may cover 
a body containing a soul as far from being a Chris- 
tian, as those of the Jews themselves, even while 
they are in the performance of their blasphemous 
rites, and defending, by fair implication,the bloody 
deed, for which their race has been condemned to 
wander throughout the earth. 

No : we are called upon to show our gratitude 
by our acts, to prove the sincerity of our belief, not 
by words but by deeds. " It is not he that crieth, 
Lord! Lord! but he that doeth my loill, that is 
my disciple.'''' And, what is his loill ? Why, that 
we should not only abstain from doing evil, not 
only do no injustice, commit no act of extortion, 
commit no crime of any sort, but do as much good 
as we are able to do ; to endeavour to make our 
country happy, to repress injustice when in our 
power ; to defend feeble innocence against power- 
ful guilt; to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, 
harbour the harbourless, visit the sick, lift up the 
humble and unjustly depressed, and pull down, if 
we have the power, haughtiness and insolence, and 



232 GOOD-FRIDAY. 

oppressive influence of every description. Vain is 
the imagination of those who believe, or, at least, 
whose conduct would seem to say that they believe, 
that they please God by their melancholy tone and 
air, and by being in incessant misery. ' Man was 
not made to live a life of wretchedness. If this 
were so, the infliction of tyranny, stripes, extortion, 
starvation, would be to be commended ; and justice, 
mercy, and charity, would be subjects for reproba- 
tion. No : it is not a mournful and lazy despond- 
ency that bespeaks the Christian ; but a cheerful 
and active and vigilant discharge of all the duties 
stated and enjoined in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 
And the transactions of this day in particular ought 
to revive in us, if we stand in need of such revival, 
a sense of our duty to encounter any hardships, 
and to make any sacrifices, that justice and mercy 
and charity may call on us to encounter and to 
make ; for, what were the hardships for us endured, 
what was the sacrifice for us made on this ever- 
memorable day ! 

But there is one duty, which, above all others, is 
suggested and enjoined by the recollection of the 
transactions of this day ; there is one obligation, a 
disregard of w^hich would be to set at defiance, not 
only the law of God, but every moral precept and 
principle known amongst men, and must mark us 
out as lost to every feeling, not only of gratitude, 
but of common shame, and of common humanity : 
and this great and sound obligation is, that we do 
nothing that can hy possibility be interpreted to 
mean, that vne do not abhor the conduct of those 
who crucified Him, on whom we rely for salvation. 
It is not enough that we express, in words,our abhor- 
rence of the murder and the murderers ; we must, by 
our deeds, whenever the occasion ofler prove the sin- 



GOOD-FRIDAY. 233 

cerity of this abhorrence. The actual peipetrators 
of the bloody deed have, to be sure, long ceased to 
exist; but, if the earth be still polluted by their de- 
scendants in mind and heart as well as in their na- 
tural bodies ; and if these still persevere in the ut- 
terance of their blasphemous calumnies; if they 
persevere in giving the lie to the prophets and 
evangelists, can those be Christians who join mfel- 
lowship with them ? Nay, who do not do their ut- 
most, as far as is consistent with justice and huma- 
nity, to prevent these descendants of the murderers 
of Christ from possessing the means of doing 
mischief in the world ? 

This is a momentous question, dividing itself in- 
to two parts : first, as relating to religion; and, 
next, as relating to temporal good: and, let us 
now view the matter in these two distinct lights. 

With regard to the first, the case stands thus : 
This is a Christian nation; Christians believe, 
that Christ was the son of God; that he died to 
save them from perdition ; that, without this sacri- 
fice, they could not have been saved. This is the 
Christian belief; and we believe, further, that he 
rose from the dead ; and that he now sitteth on the 
right hand of God. And, what say the Jews? 
They assert, that he was an impostor ; that he de- 
served the crue-l death that was inflicted on him ; 
that he did 7iot rise from the dead ; and that our 
faith and ^hope rest on a contemptible fable. For 
eighteen hundred years they have been asserting 
this; and, during that time, the Gospel has spread 
over nearly the whole earth, while they have been 
dispersed over that earth, agreeably to the words of 
the prophets, over and over again repeated. The 
whole of their conduct and fate was foretold by the 
prophets; the bribe which they gave to Judas; 
20* 



234 GOOD-FRIDAY. 

their mockery of Jesus; their hardness of heart; 
their shedding of innocent blood ; and, the strong- 
est of all the proofs of the truth of our religion is to 
be found in the clear and repeated prophecies, that 
they should be dispersed amongst the nations,should 
be wanderers over the earth, and should have no 
inheritance, except the possession of their own bo- 
dies, or, as the prophet Ezekiel describes it, the 
monopoly of their own ''filthiness ;" that is to say, 
that they should, in no country on earth, (as long as 
they adhered to their blasphemy,) have any immuni- 
ties, any privileges, any possessions in hou^e, land, 
or water, any civil or political rights ; that they 
should, every where be deemed aliens ; and always 
at the absolute disposal of the sovereign power of 
the state, as completely-as any inanimate substance, 
thrown on the land by the wind or the waves. 

This was the judgment passed on them by God 
himself, and on them this judgment has been exe- 
cuted. Sometimes, indeed, careless, foolish, profli- 
gate, and, above all, oppressive rulers of Christian 
nations, have, from some motive connected with the 
aptness and power of those blasphemers to aid them 
in their oppressions; in some few instances, and 
from such motives, a relaxation of their doom has 
taken place ; and in one or two instances, the 
basest of tyrants have bestowed titles of " honour''^ 
upon them, as a reward for assistance given by 
the^m in oppressing and plundering their unhappy 
subjects; but these are mere exceptions to the uni- 
versal rule ; while the nations of the earth, with un- 
divided voice, and for the unbroken period of eight- 
een hundred years, hava proclaimed the truth of the 
holy prophets, and the just judgments of God 
evinced in the doom of these perverse blasphemers 
of his name. 



GOOD-FRIDAY. 235 

And wherever such relaxation has taken place, 
the punishment of both rulers and people has 
speedily followed. The harvest has not been tardy, 
when the seed has once been sown. Deism, athe- 
ism, all restraints from religious consideration, 
have immediately followed : the ''goddess of rea^ 
sorC in som.e cases, and " death^s eternal sleejp'^ in 
others ; these, with all their accompanying enor- 
mities, and all their rivers of blood; these, or 
something nearly resembling them, have been in- 
variably, as they were naturally, the fruit of every 
attempt thus to thwart the decree of God by human 
means. To be sure, it must of necessity be thus : 
for to do any act which puts a Jew, in point oicre- 
dience and confidence and honour and power, upon 
a level with Christians, what is it but to declare 
that he who proclaims Jesus Christ to have been 
an im'postor is as good a man, and as worthy of be- 
lief, confidence, and trust, as a man who adores 
Jesus Christ ? And what is this but to declare, 
that to adore Jesus Christ is of no use ? And 
what is this but to declare, that the doctrines of 
Christianity are false ? 

That Christian teachers should, above all men 
livinpf, have been remiss in warn in 2f rulers aofainst 
relaxations of this pernicious description, is an in- 
stance of abandonment of duty, and, in fact, ofapos- 
tacy, not to be thought possible, if, unhappily, the 
fact were not but too well known. For why do 
we have teachers of Christianity; why "preach 
Jesus Christ crucified ;" why, above all things, 
call men " reveretid,^^ and give them money for 
teaching a belief in Christ as the Son of God ; 
why honour and pa.]/ men for doing this ; why call 
them your pastors ; why have them for any such 
purpose, if the man who declares Christ to have 



235 GOOD-FRIDAY. 

bfeen an Impostor, worthy of an ignominious 
death ; if such a man be as worthy of credence and 
trust and .magisterial and all other authority, as a 
man who worships Christ as his Saviour ? To 
be consistent and decent such teachers ought, at 
any rate, to resign their offices, and forego their 
gains ; for, of all the instances which the world has 
produced of audacious profligacy, who ever wit- 
nessed one equal to that of declaring a Jew lias- 
phemer to be as good as a Christian, and, at the 
same time, demand money for teaching the Christian, 
faith ! But the truth is that these are not Chris- 
tian teachers : they are those wolves in sheep^s 
clothing, foretold by Christ himself; and, as was 
Judas Iscariot, so are they : he betrayed his mas- 
ter for thirty pieces of silver ; their price may 
have been somewhat higher, but their acts and 
their motives are the same ; and let us leave it to 
God to unite them in their fate. 

With regard to the temporal good of a nation, 
what can be more pernicious than to give counte- 
nance and encouragement to a race, whose god is 
gain; who live solely by money-changing ; who 
never labour in making, or causing to come, any- 
thing useful to man ; who are usurers by profession, 
and extortioners by habit and almost by instinct ; 
who, to use the words of the prophet, carry on " usury 
and increase, and greedily gain of their neighbours 
by extortion ?" This propensity they appear to have 
in their very nature ; it seems to be imborn with 
them to be continually drawing to themselves the 
goods of all around them. In all the states, where 
they have been encouraged, they have first assist- 
ed to rob and enslave the people, and, in the end, to 
destroy the government. A neighbouring nation, 
which was, at last, plunged into all the horrors of 



GOOD-FRIDAY. 237 

anarchy, they were the agents in bringing into that 
state of misery, which finally produced the lament- 
able catastrophe. They everywhere are on the side 
of oppression, assisting tyranny in its fiscal extor- 
tions ; and everywhere they are the bitter foes of 
those popular rights and liberties, which are not 
more necessary to the happiness of the people than 
to the stability and dignity of the sovereign power; 
because, as long as those rights are in force, there 
is no room for a full display of their talent at accu- 
mulation : it is amongst masses of debt and misery 
that they thrive, as birds and beasts of prey get fat 
in time of pestilence. St. Gregory calls usury, 
even in private cases, "•felony and parricide ;" 
what must it be, then, when it spreads its deadly 
wings over the property of a whole nation ? 

This race appears always to have been the in- 
struments in the hands of tyrants for plundering 
their subjects ; they were the farmers of the cruel 
taxes, in the reigns of Louis XIV, and Louis XV. ; 
and naturally, and, indeed, necessarily, the enemies 
of all Christians ; they lend a support to despotism, 
which it could not otherwise obtain ; and we see, 
accordingly, that the wisest and bravest and most 
just and humane of the kings of England, and 
in the times of England's greatest happiness and 
renown, have invariably treated this race of blas- 
phemers and usurers with the greatest rigour, mere- 
ly permitting their existence here during the plea- 
sure of the sovereign. In Poland, Hungary, 
and divers parts of Germany, they have, at times, 
until banished, (as they frequently have been,) 
totally ruined a great part of the people. In some 
of the territories on the Rhine, the main part of the 
people are, in fact, their slaves. In Kentucky, one 
of the states of America, a band of Jews had not 



238 GOOD-FRIDAY. 

long" ago, amassed so large a part of the property ol 
the state, that the people rose upon them in a body, 
and drove them out of the territory. 

A great historian has remarked, that this race 
always becomes of importance in a country, that it 
always becomes numerous and thriving, in propor- 
tion as the country is on the decline and in a state 
of distress, just as vermin increase and thrive on 
the body of a diseased animal : and that, as to more 
modern times, " it would have been impossible to 
carry on fiscal oppressions to the extent that we 
have beheld, without the aid of these people," who, 
with their loans, their usury, and their various con- 
trivances, assist mainly in dravv^ing the substance 
from the people, v/hich they share with their 
protector; on whose side, therefore, they always 
are. No question that the murderers of CHRIST 
were sharers, in some way or other, in the tribute 
paid to the Romans. " Then went the Pharisees, 
and took counsel how they might entangle him in 
his talk. And they sent unto him their disciples,, 
with the Herodians (Herod's people,) saymg. Mas- 
ter, we know that thou art true, and teachest the 
way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any 
man ; for thou regardest not the person of men. 
Tell us, therefore, what thinkest thou ? Is it law- 
ful to give tribute to Casar or not ? But Jesus 
perceived their wickedness, and said. Why tempt ye 
me, ye hypocrites ? Show me the tribute money. 
And they brought him a penny. And he saith un- 
to them. Whose is this image and superscription? 
And they say unto him, Caesar's. Then said he 
unto them. Render unto Csesar the things that are 
Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's." 
So that these wretches, who had been conquered by 
the Romans, and who were paying tribute to the 



GOOD-FRIDAY. 239 

conquerors, had the infamy to go along with He- 
rod's people, to endeavour to obtain evidence 
against him, and to put him in the power of that 
very man that was exacting the tribute from their 
unhappjr countrymen ! How exactly like those 
spies whom tyrants employ when they suspect that 
their power is in danger, and who, in the w^ords of 
the Psalmist, " lie in wait to shed innocent blood.'* 
These Jews took the Herodians with them! This 
is so like the practice of the spies of tyrants : they 
had Herod's soldiers ready to pounce upon him ! 
Beyond all doubt they were sharers in the tribute; 
and in all human probability had betrayed their 
own countrymen into the hands of the conquerors: % 
verifying therein the words of the prophet, that 
they should barter their freedom " for bits of silver." 
The propensity to bribe d^ndi corrupt, so notorious in 
this people, as described and denounced by the pro- 
phets, and as evinced in the case of Iscariot, ought 
never to be lost sight of! Notwithstajfi ding the exam- 
ple made of Samuel's sons ; and notwithstanding the 
denunciation that '' fire shall consume the habitations 
of bribery, ^'^ we find the prophet Amos accusing 
them of horrible bribery, and foretelling their chas- 
tisement accordingly. " Forasmuch, therefore, as 
your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from 
him burdens of wheat ; ye have built houses of hewn 
fetone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have 
planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink 
wine in them. For I know your manifold trans- 
gression and your mighty sins : they afflict the 
just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor 
in the gate from their right." (Amos, chap. v. ver. 
11.) Again, in the next chapter, ver. 4, " Ye swal- 
low up the needy, making the poor of the land to 
fail ; ye make the ephah small and the shekel greats 



240 GOOD-FRIDAY. 

falsifying the balances by deceit, that ye may buy 
the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of 
shoes." 

Oh ! how justly descriptive of their character 
and conduct ! What, then, shall we, disregarding 
the united voice of the prophets, though confirmed 
to the very letter by all subsequent history and by 
our own sad experience ; shall we, disregarding all 
these, pass this memorable day over without bear- 
ing testimony against all those, who, whether by 
acts of commission or omission, would imply that 
this race, thus denounced by God for their outrage- 
ous wickedness, for their bribery, their corruption, 
their subornation of perjury, their usury, their de-- 
ceit, their frauds, their oppressions of the poor, 
their murders and their blasphemies without end ; 
shall we pass over this memorable day without pro- 
testing against those who imply that this race, who, 
to crown all their other abominations, revile Jesus 
Christ as an impostor, are as good, as worthy ot 
credence, and trust and honour as Christians ! 

Do I call upon you to destroy them or to hunt 
them from the land like beasts of prey ? By no 
means : the principles of Christians, the principles 
of Him against whom they utter their blasphemies, 
are their sure protection. But, to abstain from pu- 
nishment, and to give encouragement^ are two 
things widely different ; by the former, we leave 
^ the blasphemers to repent ; by the latter, we (at- 
tempt how we may to gloss the matter over) join in 
the blasphemy. And if we, no matter by what 
means, however distant and indirect, declare that 
those who call Christ an impostor, are as good as 
those who adore him, we ourselves partake in their 
crime. For, *' can a man take fire in his bosom^ 
and his clothes not be burnt : can one go upon hot 



GOOD-FRIDAY. 241 

coals, and his feet not be burnt?" (Proverbs, chap, 
vi. ver. 27 and 28.) 

By that modern " liberality'^ which means an 
abandonment of all principle and a supplying of 
its place with folly and hypocrisy duly admixed'; 
by the professors of this new and curious school, 
I shall be asked, Whether the Jews had not " the 
same Maker loith us i'' this being the standing 
question of this school. Yes, surely, God made 
the Jews ; and so he did the serpent and the croco- 
dile ; yet he teaches other animals to shun serpents 
and crocodiles. God made the hawk, the kite, and 
the screech-owl ; yet he has taught other birds to 
flee from them. God made the arrow that flieth by 
day, and the pestilence that flieth by night ; yet he 
has taught us to endeavour to escape from both. 
Oh, yes ! God made the Jews ; and so he did Ahab 
and Nero and Caligula and Judas Iscariot and 
Henry the Eighth and Jezebel and " Good Queen 
Bess." God made the cannibals and the men of 
Sodom and Gomorrah ; and lastly, God made Sa- 
tan himself, who, though he tempted the Son of 
God, did not murder him. And, what does this 
eternal enemy of God and man do now ? What 
can he do worse, than instil into the minds of men, 
that Jesus Christ was an impostor, and that the 
Gospel is a fraudulent lie ? Come, then, " libe- 
rality T Away with all squeamishness ; open 
widely thy indiscriminating arms, and hug to thy 
bosom the devil himself ! 

Ah ! let us not deceive ourselves by these hypo- 
critical excuses ! If we make a compromise with 
the blasphemer, in order to ensure to ourselves a 
share in his wealth, or in order to slaken his usu- 
rious grasp, or from any motive of expediency, ei- 
ther private or pubh'c ; if we, thus acting under the 
21 



242 GOOD-FRIDAY. / 

garb of " liberality," make fellowship with those 
who call Christ an impostor, we may deceive 
ourselves, but we cannot deceive God, who has for- 
bidden us to "be yoked together with unbelievers ; 
for, what fellowship hath righteousness with un- 
righteousness ; and what communion hath light 
with darkness ; and what concord hath Christ with 
Belial ; or what part hath he that believeth with 
an infidel ? Therefore, come out from among them, 
and be separate from them, saith the Lord." At- 
tempt to disguise the matter in whatever manner 
we may, plaster it over with " liberality" and "tole- 
ration" as thickly as we please, if we, under what- 
ever colour or name, and in any way however cir- 
cumlocutious, do any act, or approve of any act, ex- 
pressly or tacitly, by which it shall be declared, 
though only by implication, that he who calls 
Christ an impostor is as good as he who worships 
him, we fall under the awful denunciation pro- 
nounced against those, who, "to themselves," that 
is, as far as they are able, " crucify the Son of 
God afresh, and put him to an open shame." . Come, 
then, professor of Christianity ! Look at Him now, 
as on this very day, stretched on the cross ; behold 
the thorns around his brow ; see the blood stream 
down from his hands and his feet; witness his 
agony and hear his dying groan ; see the heavens 
darkened, hear the avenging tempest roar, and see 
the temple rent in twain ; and then take the Jews 
to your bosom ; and then, if you can, call yourself 
** a follower of Christ," and expect salvation from 
his atoning blood ! 



TO THE WORKING PEOPLE: 



NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 



Stockport, in Cheshire, 2ilh Jan. 1832. 

My Friends, 

The above subject is very interesting" to yoU/i 
and I beg you to give it your particular attention. 
You have been informed of the horrible murders 
in London, committed by the bloody Bishop and 
others ; and I will now explain to you the cause of 
those murders. When you clearly see this cause, 
you will know how you ought to think and feel 
upon this subject. 

There are in London and some other great towns, 
places where men are engaged in cutting up dead 
human bodies. What they do this for ; that is to 
say, under what pretence they do this, 1 will speak 
by-and-by ; at present I have only to speak of the 
fact, and to show you that it is the cause of the hor- 
rible murders that you have lately read of The 
cutters-up of human bodies, or body-cutters, pur- 
chase dead bodies to cut up, and with just as little 
scruple and ceremony as cutting-butchers purchase 
the dead bodies of pigs or sheep from the carcass- 
butchers. The law, as it now stands, makes it only 
^.misdemeanor, that is to say, a crime punishable by 



244 NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 

fine- and imprisonment^ as a common assault is, or 
as a libel is, to steal, to sell, or to purchase, a dead 
human body ; and I pray you mark, that to steal 
the dead body of a sheep, or pig, or calf, or ox, or 
fowl of any sort, is a capital felony, punished with 
DEATH; and that to receive any such body, or to 
have it in your possession, knowing it to he stolen, 
is also a felony, punished with TRANSPORTA- 
TION. This law extends to all sorts of moveable 
property; and a bookseller named Cahuack (or 
some such name) was transported, some few years 
ago, for purchasing and having in his possession 
some copies of a book which had been stolen out 
of the ware-house of Mr. Bensley, in Bolt-court. 
This bookseller had a family, carried on a respecta- 
ble business, and bore a fair character ; and he al- 
leged that he did not know the books to have been 
stolen. From the circumstances, however, the jury 
were satisfied that he did know them to have been 
stolen ; and he was transported ; and very justly 
transported; for he was as criminal as the thief 
himself 

But, my friends, if it be just (and it is so) to pun- 
ish with transportation a man who receives the dead 
body of <2. pig, knowing it to be stolen, what are 
we to say to the law which punishes so slightly^ 
and, in practice, punishes not at all, he who receives 
and cuts up the dead body of one of the people, 
though he MUST KNOW that it has been stolen, 
if not murdered 1 What are we to say of such a 
law 1 And while the law stands thus, what is the 
protection that the labouring people receive from 
the law ? 

On the 12th of December last, the following let- 
ter was published in all the London newspapers. 
I beg you to read it with attention. 



NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 245 

" Sir, — Having dined yesterday with some of 
my brother magistrates, I learned, upon informa- 
tion which I have no reason to distrust, that besides 
the confessions published, another was made on Sun- 
day last, which comprehended a catalogue of about 
sixty murders, and would have probably gone on to 
a much greater extent, but for the interference of the 
ordinary. When to this is added the large supply 
which by the published confessions, Bishop appears 
to have furnished for dissection, the great number 
of persons employed in the same way, the probable 
profligacy of such persons, and, as asserted, a great 
falling off ill the number of burials, notwithstand- 
ing the increased population of this metropolis, 
there is certainly but too much reason to believe 
that this system of murder amongst the foor^ 
which Bishop said he resorted to as both less ex- 
'pensive and less hazardous than collecting from ce- 
meteries, is become extremely common, that it is in 
a state of progression, aad that new and extraor- 
' dinary modes, however inconvenient to the profes- 
sor and students of anatomy, MUST BE HAD 
RECOURSE TO, FOR THE PREVENTION 
OF SUCH ATROCIOUS CRIMES. 

*' J. Sewell. 

'•'21, Cumberland-street, 

Portman-square, Dec. 8." 

This Mr. Sewell is a police magistrate, and, 
besides this, his statement is notoriously true. Thus, 
then, sixty poor persons, at the very least, have hezn 
m-urdered in London alone. Probably hundreds ; 
but sixty at the least. And, observe, they have all 
been RECEIVED % /Ae cutter s-uf ; and no de- 
tection of the murderers ever took place, until that 
of the bloody Bishop and his associates, whose con- 
duct was so open and unwary that the receivers saw 
21* 



246 NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 

that they were liable to be implicated themselves in 
the crime of murder. The apology, the impudent, 
the audacious excuse of the cutters-up, is, that "they 
cannot always distinguish the body of a person 
who has been murdered from that of one who has 
died a natural death.''^ This is stated by the coun- 
cil of the Royal College of Surgeons, in their let- 
ter to Lord Melbourne of the 10th of December 
last ; a documeat the most impudent and unfeeling 
that ever was put upon paper. Well, then, sinj:e 
they declare, that even they are unable to distin- 
guish a murdered body from one that has died a 
natural death ; and, since it is notorious that there 
are hundreds (ay, hundreds!) of cutters-up of hu- 
man bodies ; and that there are many places for the 
receiving and purchasing of human bodies, and 
that, too, in oven defiance of the present law ; what 
ought the Parliament to have done the moment it 
met, after the detection of the recent horrible mur- 
ders ? Why, pass a law, to be sure, making the 
steading and the receiving of the dead body of a 
human being a crime as great, at the least, as the 
stealing and the receiving of the dead body of a pig 
or a sheep. This is what the Parliament ought to 
have done at the least. And, indeed, it ought to have 
done much more. The College of Surgeons allow, 
that even they are not, in all cases, able to distin- 
guish between murdered bodies and bodies stolen 
from the coffin. The cutter-up and the receiver 
never know that they are not accessaries to the com- 
mission of murder : they proceed in their bloody 
work, knowing that they may be such accessaries. 
No man, nothing short of a monster, will deny 
that it is as great a crime to steal the dead body of 
a human being, as it is to steal the dead body of a 
sheep or a pig. Therefore, that crime ought to be 



NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 247 

punished with death as is the crime of stealing- the 
dead body of a pig or sheep ; and death ought also to 
be the punishment of the receiver and the cutter-wp ; 
because they can, according to their own confes- 
sion, never know that they are not wilfully and 
premeditatedly engaged in an act which makes 
them accessaries to the commission of murder, both 
before and after the fact. In short, an act ought to 
have been passed, the moment the Parliament met, 
to punish as murderers, all those who should, in 
future, be found to have in their possession any hu- 
man body, or part of any human body, not deliv- 
ered up to them in consequence of a sentence in a 
court of justice. 

This is what the Parliament ought to have done. 
And what have they done 1 Why, one War- 
burton has brought in a bill, which is now be- 
fore the House of Commons. I have not seen 
this bill ; but the following has been published as 
an abstract of it ; and this abstract is quite enough 
for me. I will first insert it, and then remark up- 
on it. 

SCHOOLS OF ANATOMY. 

The preamble of this bill states, that whereas a 
knowledge of the causes and nature of very many- 
diseases which affect tbe body, and of the best me- 
thods of treating and curing such diseases, and of 
healing and repairing divers wounds and injuries, 
to which the human frame is liable, cannot he 
acquired hut by anatomical examination ; and 
whereas, therefore, it is highly expedient to give 
protection, under certain regulations, to the study 
and practice of anatomy : — 

Clause I. therefore enacts the Secretary of State 
to appoint Inspectors of Schools of Anatomy. 



248 NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 

II. Name of Inspector, and District to which he 
belongs, to be published in the London Gazette,. 

III. One inspector to reside in London, and one 
other in Edinburgh. 

IV. Inspectors to receive returns and certificates. 
V. To visit any place where anatomy is carried on. 

VI. Salaries to Inspectors. 

VII. Executors may permit bodies to undergo 
anatomical examination in certain cases. 

VIII. The same not to be removed from the 
place where such person may have died, without a 
certificate. 

IX. Professors, surgeons, and others, may re- 
ceive bodies for anatomical examination. 

X. Such person to receive with the body a cer- 
tificate, as aforesaid. 

XL Persons described in this Act not to he lia- 
ble to punishment for having in their possession hu- 
man bodies, nor for any offence against this Act, 
unless the prosecution is instituted by the Attor- 
ney-General 

XII. This Act not to prohibit post-mortem ex- 
amination. 

XIII. So much of 9 Geo. IV., c. 31, as directs that 
the bodies of murderers may be dissected is repealed. 

XIV. Bodies of murderers to be buried in the 
highway, or hung in chains. 

XV. This act not to extend to Ireland. — [And 
why not?] 

Pray look well at clauses 9 and 1 1 ; especially at 
clause 1 1 ; and observe, that nobody is to prose- 
cute but the Attorney-General ! Pray mark that 
THIS SAME WARBURTON brought in a bill, 
in 1829, to authorize masters of workhouses, over- 
seers of the poor, keepers of hospitals, and keeper.^ 
of prisons, to dispose of (and, of course, to sell) the 



NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 249 

bodies of all persons dying- under their keeping, or 
power, unless such bodies were claimed hy rela- 
tions ; and, even then, such relations were not to 
have the bodies, unless they dovldi give security for 
the burial of them according to the rites of the 
church. Thus were the very poorest of the poor to 
have their bodies sold to be cut up ! Thus were 
the Parliament to fulfil the command of God, and 
to show their belief in his word. "Despise not 
the poor because he is poor," says the Bible. What 
would this law have said ? Why, " cut him up be- 
cause he is poor ?" 

\ This bill passed the House of Commons ; and 
was carried to the Lords, who, to their great 
honour, rejected it. When it went to the Lords, I 
petitioned against it. I gave my petition to the 
Bishop of London, who presented it on the 26th 
May, 1829. Now, my friends, read this petition 
attentively. It states your case. It puts forward 
your claim to protection against the cutters-up and 
the grave-robbers and the murderers. 

To the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and 
Temporal of the United Kingdom of Great 
Britain and Ireland in Parliament assembled. 

The petition of William Cobbett, of Kensington, 
Most humbly showeth, 

That a bill has just passed the Commons' House 
of Parliament, which bill gives authority to over- 
seers, or other persons who have the charge of poor- 
houses and hospitals, to dispose of (and, of course, 
to sell) the dead bodies of those paupers and patients 
who may die in workhouses and hospitals, and 
whose bodies are not claimed by their relations, 
those relations giving security that they will, at 
their own charge, cause the said bodies to be buried. 



250 NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 

That your humble petitioner is quite sure that 
your Right Honourable House will clearly perceive 
that such a law is just the same thing as a law to 
authorize overseers and hospital-keepers to dispose 
of the dead bodies of all poor ^persons, whatsoever, 
dying under their charge ; for that the bare fact of 
the death taking place under such circumstances, 
is quite enough to convince every one, that the bo- 
dies of such poor persons will, on account of the 
poverty of their relations, never be claimed, espe- 
cially if the claim be to compel the claimant to 
give security for defraying the expense of an in- 
terment ; and that, therefore, this is, in short, a bill 
to enable the agents of the rich to dispose of the 
dead bodies of the most unfortunate of the poor, 
and that, too, for the benefit of those rich. 

That your humble petitioner begs to be permit- 
ted to state to your Right Honourable House, that 
those poor and necessitous persons, whom the law 
calls paupers, have a clear and undoubted right to 
he relieved out of the property of the owners and 
occupiers of the houses and the lands ; tha(^ this 
law is, as stated by Blackstone, founded in the prin- 
ciples of civil society ; that it has been confirmed 
by the canon law, by the writings of the Christian 
fathers, by the law of nations as laid down by ci- 
vilians, by the common law of England, and, lastly, 
by the statute law of England ; and that this right 
extends to interment after death, according to the 
rights and ceremonies of the established church. 

That the unfortunate persons who die in poor- 
houses and hospitals have, in numerous cases, seen 
better days, and have, during many years, contri- 
buted by direct payments towards the maintenance 
of the poor and the sick ; that those of them v/ho 
have not thus contributed, have all been, as long as 



NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 251 

able to work, compelled to pay heavy taxes out of the 
fruits of their hard labour ; that every working- 
man, of whatever description, pays*full the one half 
of his wages in taxes ; and that, therefore, when 
he becomes so poor, helpless, and destitute, as to 
die in a poor-house or in a hospital, it is unjust, cruel, 
barbarous to the last degree, to dispose of his dead 
body to be cut up like that of a murderer, and to 
let him know beforehand, too, that his body is thus to 
be treated, thereby adding to the pangs of death itself. 
That your humble petitioner beseeches your 
Right Honourable House to bear in mind, that, in 
1808, a Return, laid before Parliament, stated that 
upwards of tAvo thousand persons, men, women, 
and children, belonging to noble or rich families, 
were receiving annually large sums of money out 
of the taxes in the shape of pensions and sinecures, 
and that none of these persons had ever rendered 
any service to the public for the sums thus by them 
received ; that your petitioner does not think it 
probable that a less sum is on this account now paid 
out of the taxes than was paid in 1 808 ; that, in like 
manner, large sums of money, amounting in the 
whole to more than a million and a half of pounds 
sterling, have, within these few years, been given 
by the Parliament for " the relief of the poor clergy 
of the church of England;''^ that those who are 
now paupers have, during their whole lives, been 
faying taxes to support these poor nobles and cler- 
gy ; that they have, in fact, for the far greater part, 
been reduced to a state of pauperism by the taxes, 
and by the taxes alone; and that those bodies 
which have been worn out or debilitated by labours 
performed and privations endured for the benefit of 
the rich, are now, when breathless, to be sold and 
cut up for the benefit of those same rich. 



252 NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 

That all nations, even the most barbarous, have 
shown respect for the remains of the dead ; that the 
Holy Scriptures invariably speak of the rites of 
burial as being honourable, and of the refusal of 
those rites as an infamous punishment and signal 
disgrace; that in the 15th chap, of Genesis, 15th 
verse, it is recorded, that amongst the gracious pro- 
mises that God made to Abraham, on account of his 
faith, one was, that he should be buried in a good 
old age ; that David, (2 Samuel, chap. 2.,) when 
the men of Jabesh-gilead h^d buried Saul, blessed 
them for his kindness, and said the Lord would re- 
ward them ; that the Psalmist, in describing the 
desolation of Jerusalem by the hands of the hea- 
then, says that these latter had given the dead bodies 
of the Israelites to be meat unto the fowls of the 
heavens, that they shed their blood like water, and 
that there was none to bury them, which, he adds, 
has made the Israelites a reproach to the other na- 
tions ; that in Ecclesiastes, chap. 6, verse 3, it is 
said, that if a man have ever so prosperous and 
long a life, if he have no burial he had better never 
have been born ; that we find by Ezekiel, chap. 39, 
that even enemies were to be buried, and that if a 
human bone was found above ground, it was to be 
deemed a duty to inter it ; that the prophet Isaiah, 
chap. 14, says that the King of Babylon shall be 
kept out of the grave, like an abominable branch, 
and shall not be buried, because he has been a ty- 
rant ; that the prophet Jeremiah, chap. 7 and 8, at 
the conclusion of a long and terrible denunciation 
against the Jews, tells them that they shall not be 
gathered nor be buried, and that they shall be as dung 
upon -the face of the earth; that the same prophet 
chap. 14, says, that the people who listen to false 
prophets shall die of famine and the sword, and 



NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 253 

shall have none to bury them ; that the same prophet, 
chap. 16, foretelling the ruin of the Jews, says that 
they shall die of grievous deaths, that they shall 
not be lamented, neither shall they be buried, but 
shall be as dung upon the face of the earth ; that 
the same prophet, chap. 22, pronounces judgment 
on Jehoiakim, King of Juda, for covetousness, for 
shedding innocent blood, for oppression and vio- 
lence, that he shall be buried with the burial of aru 
ass, drawn and cast forth before the gates of Jeru- 
salem; that in the New Testament, we find that 
devout men carried Stephen to his burial; and, 
finally, that by our own burial service and canons 
we are taught, that to be buried in consecrated 
ground is a right belonging to every person who 
has been baptized, who is not, at the hour of death, 
excommunicated, and who has not killed him or 
herself 

That seeing that such is the language of Holy 
Writj your humble petitioner has waited until now, 
hoping that the bill in question would be zealously 
and effectually opposed by the clergy of the estab- 
lished Church • that, if the bodies of poor persons 
can be disoosed of and cut up into pieces, without 
any detriment to our faith, our hope, our religious 
feeling ; if no burial service is at all necessary in 
these cases, if this be told to the people by this bill, it 
is manifest, that that same people will not long think 
that the burial service can m any case be necessary, 
and that they will, in a short time, look upon all 
other parts of the church service as equally use- 
less ; because, as your petitioner presumes, there is 
no ground whatever for believing in the sacredness 
of one rite or ceremony any more than in that of 
another, and that, of course, if the Burial of the 
dead can be dispensed with, so may Baptism, Cou» 
22 



254 NEW DEAP-BODY BILL. 

firmation, Marriage, and the Sacrament of the Lord's 
Supper. 

That your humble petitioner is firmly persuaded, 
that a belief in the resurrection, and in a future 
state of rewards and punishments, cannot exist for 
any length of time in a country where human bo- 
dies are by law permitted to be disposed of, and that, 
too, for the avowed purpose of being cut to pieces 
for the use of the parties acquiring them ; and that, 
therefore, atheism, generally prevalent throughout 
the country, must be one of the natural consequen- 
ces of this bill, if, unhappily, it become a law. 

That your humble petitioner hopes that your 
Right Honourable House will perceive, that if this 
bill were to become a law, the hatred of the rich 
by the poor must become implacable and universal, 
while the latter would be taught by this bill atheism, 
and obduracy of heart, and familiarity with fero- 
cious ideas and bloody deeds ; and that it would re- 
quire greater powers of persuasion than even elo- 
quent men generally possess, to convince the poor 
that they ought to be restrained by anything but 
want of po\ver, while the same Government which 
takes from them a large part of their earnings for the 
support of the rich, condemns their bodies to be dispo- 
sed of after death, for the benefit of those same rich. 

That, for these reasons, your humble petitioner 
prays, that your Right Honourable House will not 
pass the bill' afore-mentioned, but will protect the 
poor against a species of oppression more odious as 
well as more cruel and more hostile to feelings of 
humanity than any ever before heard of in thu 
world. 

And your petitioner will ever pray. 

Wm. gobbett 

London, 22d May, 1829. 



NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 255 

Now, my friends, the present bill differs from the 
former one, in some respects ; but its main tenden- 
cy is the same. What it will be at last, we cannot 
as yet precisely say ; but, in the meanwhile, look 
at the following report of a debate, which took place 
in the House of Commons on the 17th instant. 

Mr. Warburton moved the second reading of 
the bill for providing subjects for the anatomical 
schools. The honourable member, who spoke in 
a low tone, was understood to say, that as the bill 
had been twice before the House, which has assent- 
ed to its principles on former occasions, he thought 
any explanation unnecessary. 

Sir Robert Inglis did not think it sufficient 
that this bill had been twice before the House for- 
merly, to induce the House to pass it. He required 
further explanation. He was glad to observe that 
in the present bill there was a distinct enactment 
separating the dissection from the crime of mur- 
der ; he was satisfied that the study of anatomy 
was necessary for the successful practice of medi- 
cine, and that, therefore, some means must be taken 
to remedy the present state of the law. He had 
ascertained that during last year there were only 
eleven bodies which could be legally disposed of as 
subjects, and these were to suppli/ eight hundred 
students of medicine. While the principles of the 
bill were deserving the attention of the House, so 
were its details. There was one of these to which 
he objected. He thought the relations of persons 
dying in jails, workhouses, Sfc. should have their 
bodies if they chose to demand them. He would 
not oppose the second reading of the Bill. 

Mr. Cresset Pelham opposed the bill, and con- 
tended that it merely gave a legal encouragement 
to the traffic in human blood. 



256 NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 

Mr. Hume supported the bill, and expressed his 
surprise that the honourable Baronet, the member 
for Oxford, (Sir R. Inglis,) should not perceive that 
the bill would make subjects cheo^p, and that its 
provisions were therefore the more likely to put an 
end to the traffic of those who calculated on a high 
price as a reward for the perpetration of crime. 

Mr. Perceval recommended that the mere pos- 
session of dead bodies should be held to be a felony. 
The knowledge of surgery could not be lost in the 
short space of two years, and if they were to try 
an experiment for that time, he was sure that medi- 
cal men would then resort to the dissection of ani- 
mals, and obtain from it when conducted under 
proper regulations, all the knowledge necessary for 
their profession. 

Mr. F. Pollock defended the principle of the 
bill, and expressed his surprise to see it maintained 
as just that medical men were to be civilly, aye, and 
criminally punished for ignorance of their profes- 
sion, and yet punished at the same time for any at- 
tempt to acquire knowledge. He was convinced 
that the bill would effect a most beneficial change, 
without in the slightest degree wounding that sen- 
sitive feeling among the lower classes, which he 
should be one of the last to wish wholly obliterated. 

The Attorney-General was in favour of the 
hill. It made no alteration in the punishment of 
those who were guilty of crime. Burking was still 
murder, and punishable with all the severity it de- 
served ; but the bill took away one of the incite- 
ments to the crime, by diminishing the expense and 
the risk of procuring subjects. 

Mr. Warbitrton briefly replied. The bill was 
intended to do equal justice to the poor and the 
rich, and it excepted only two cases from its opera- 



NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 257 

£iOTi. The first was when a person specially re- 
quested that his body might not be dissected ; and 
the second was, when the next of kin was deci- 
dedly averse to the performance of the operation. 
Nothing could be more idle than to exclaim that 
the rich were solely benefited by the diffusion ol 
the knowledge of anatomy. The very contrary 
was the fact. The rich employ those who had ob- 
tained, at a great cost, their knowledge of their pro- 
fession abroad, while the poor were compelled to 
accept that kind of assistance which was within 
their reach, and which, if it did not include practi- 
cal information on the structure of the human frame, 
would soon be lamentably inefficient. 

From this we are to conclude, that the bodies of 
the poor^ who die in 'prisons, hospitals, and poor- 
houses, are to be disposed of to the cutters-up. No 
matter on what condition : I care not a straw about 
that : here will be a law to give up the dead bodies 
of the poor to the hackers and cutters ; and that is 
quite enough for me. I agree with Mr. Pelham 
and Mr. Perceval; and I abhor the expressions 
of Hume and of Denman about making dead bo- 
dies CHEAP ! Pollock will find, I fancy, that 
it will " wound the sensitive feelings of the poor.'* 
It is curious that the Whig reformers are for 
this billy and that the Tories are against it! 
What sort of a reform the Whigs have in view we 
may guess from this circumstance. For my part, 
I am very hard to believe that those who are for 
this bill mean the people any good by the Reform 
Bill. I repeat here my words at Manchester ; 
namely, that if a reformed Parliament cannot find 
the means of protecting the dead bodies of the 
working people, while such ample means are found 
for protecting the dead body of a hare, a pheasant, 
22* 



258 NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 

or a partridge ; then, indeed the Bishops did right 
in opposing the Reform Bill ; for a greater delu- 
sion, a greater fraud, never was attempted to be 
practised on any part of mankind. Let me stop 
here to request your particular attention to this mat- 
ter relating to the want of law to protect the dead 
bodies of the working people. You all know, or 
at least every Englishman ought to know, that for 
an unqualified person to have in his possession the 
body of a hare, pheasant, or partridge, was, a few 
months back, a crime, punishable by fine or impri- 
sonment ; that to have in his possession wires, or 
other implements, for taking any of these wild an- 
imals, is still a crime, punishable in the same man- 
ner ; that, to be out in the night in pursuit of, and 
seeking after, the bodies of either of these wild an- 
imals, and carrying with him the implements where- 
with to take or kill them, is still a crime, punisha- 
ble with transportation for seven years, and this 
punishment may be inflicted, too, and has been, 
and is, frequently inflicted without the sanction of 
a judge, and at the sole discretion and pleasure of 
the justices in quarter-sessions, who, as you well 
know, are the game-preservers themselves. Yet 
-those who could, and so recently too, pass over this 
last-mentioned law, and those new and " liheraV^ 
members who have been able to sit quietly, and say 
not a word about this law for transporting men for 
making free Avith the bodies of wild animals, which, 
according to Blackstone, are the property of no 
man, and which belong in common to all men ; 
those who could make and so vigilantly enforce 
this law, cannot, for the lives and souls of them, 
find out the means of passing a law to protect the 
bodies, alive or dead, of the working people ; other 
than that of making it lawful to sell their bodies 



NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 259 

wuen dead, to cut up and cast away like the bodies 
of murderers or traitors. From every thing that I 
have ever heard here in the North, and particular- 
ly in this town, I believe, that if the horrible bill 
to which I have just alluded had become a law, 
that law w^ould have never been acted upon by the 
parochial authorities of Manchester. I hope that 
the same w^ould generally have been the case ; but 
I have no scruple to say, that an attempt to enforce 
the law in any of the agricultural counties would 
have produced open and desperate rebellion. Judge 
you of the feelings of the country people on this sub- 
ject, when I tell you that there are clubs in the coun- 
try parishes in Sussex, Kent, Surrey, Hampshire, 
and, I suppose, in all the southern counties, which 
clubs are for the purpose of forming a fund for de- 
fraying the expenses of watching the graves of the 
relations of the members of the club, if any of them 
should die, or the graves of the members themselves 
if they should die ! How honourable to the feel- 
ings of the working people, and how disgraceful to 
the Parliament, is this fact ! Judge you what would 
have been the consequences of an attempt to enforce 
amongst such a people the atrocious bill for selling 
their bodies to be cut up like those of the most hei- 
nous malefactors ! A labouring man, James Ives, 
who worked constantly for me some time ago, came 
,to me, with tears in his eyes, to get 125. in advance 
of his wages, to pay (that being the price) for loatch- 
ing the grave of his daughter, who wsls just then 
about to be buried ! Why what government-jpro- 
tection could this man discover ? What had this 
man to make him willing to be obedient to the laws '2 
Great care is taken of the pro'perty of the lich ; the 
law hunts it with inflexible eagerness go whither it 
may ; here the law has grown harder and harder, 



260 NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 

till it has made the receiving of stolen goods a fe- 
lonious offence, punishable with trans'portation. 
But those who passed and have enforced so rigidly 
this law, have not been able to find out by any means 
whatever to punish the RECEIVERS OF STO- 
LEN BODIES; though they MUST of neces- 
sity KNOW them to have been stolen, if not mur- 
dered as well as stolen ! Common justice, even 
natural justice, would make it felony, punishable 
w^ith death, in any one to have in his possession a 
dead body, or a part of a dead body, unless able to 
produce proof that he obtained it in consequence of a 
sentence of a court of justice. 

If reform be to bring us law^s like this ; if it be 
to give us rulers, who think it a good thing to make 
the trade in human bodies free ; if this be the 
''''free trade!'' they mean to give us ; if this be a 
specimen of their apolitical economy ; if " cheap^^ 
human bodies be their sign of national prosperity ; 
in short, if measures like this be to be the result of 
Parliamentary reform, better, far better, remain 
as we were, poor and oppressed ; but not put upon 
a level with the beasts that perish, and see the flesh 
and bones of our relations, parents, wives, and child- 
ren, tossed about to be devoured by the fowls of the 
air ; or, like the body of Jezebel, to be torn about 
by dogs. Warburton's is a miserable attempt to 
make us believe that the cutting-up is for the benefit 
of the poor, and that the law is to be impartial. The 
very preamble of the bill is false : and this I will 
now show to you in the words of a very eminent 
physician, w^ho wrote to Warburton on the sub- 
ject, when he brought in his first bill, and w^hose 
letter was published all over the country at the 
time. This physician proved, that the proposed 
law was not only unnecessary to a thorough know- 



NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 261 

ledge of surgery ; but that it was the contrary ; that 
the cutting up of human bodies was injurious to 
the science of surgery. Here is his letter : I beg 
you to read it with attention. This physician re- 
commends that which I recommend; namely, to 
make grave-robbing a capital felony. I pray you 
to read this letter : it will show you that that bloody 
practice is not at all necessary to the making of a 
man a skilful surgeon. If it were, I am prepared 
to prove, that this bill ought not to become a law : 
but first of all, read this letter ; and you will be sat- 
isfied that the law is wholly unnecessary for the 
purpose for which it professes to be intended. 

" ' Cuilibet in arte sua credendum est.' " 

" Sir, — As an ardently devoted and experiencec} 
member of the profession, pardon my questioning 
your philanthropy regarding the general expedien- 
cy of ' Human Dissections.' He who has dissect- 
ed and anatomised so much, from pure inclination, 
cannot reasonably be thought to be prejudiced 
against them. My firm conviction is, that they are 
by no means essential to the successful practice of 
the physician, nor, indeed, ordinary general prac- 
titioner. 

" The study of anatomy and physiology (i. e. 
structure and function of the human body) I adrnit 
to be essential to the perfection of medical and sur- 
gical science. I repeat study, for the knowledge 
of both is perfectly attainable, without the aid of 
dissections, from our present fruits of them, in the 
way of preservations, engravings, explicit lectures, 
and scientific records. 

" I canvass, primarily, the physician's vocation — 
and what have dissections performed for him ? First, 
as to the knowledge of disease. Disease, at its on- 



262 NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 

set, indeed throughout, consists mainly of functional 
derangement ; and what discovery of function has 
been made through dissection ? For by function 
the symptoms and distinctions of disease are elicit- 
ed. The perfection of this vitally important branch 
of the profession (pathology) is acquirable only by 
experience, which enables the physician to distin- 
guish functional from organic affection. What in- 
formation derived of vital function (i. e. brain, heart, 
lungs, stomach, and alimentary passages) by our 
minutest dissections ? Has the discovery of injury 
of brain, after death, thrown any important light on 
the valued functions of its particular parts ? Anat- 
omy (i. e. dissections) throws no light whatever 
upon those prevailing and appalling maladies, St 
Vitus's-dance, epilepsy, palsy, and apoplexy ; and 
why ? because, generally speaking, they are func- 
tional rather than organic affections. Much the 
same might be said of inflammations of mucous 
and serous surfaces, where life had been sacrificed 
to them ; the blood, at the moment of dissolution, 
receding from arterial to venous cavities, leaving 
such surfaces more blanched than florid by it Now 
this I affirm, not from mere prejudice or hypo-* 
thesis, but experience. Again, consumption illus- 
trates another ground of position, viz., as to the ul- 
ceration of the lungs. We know full well, with- 
out the forlorn aid of dissections, or stethoscope it- 
self, that ulceration is consequent upon the inflamma- 
tion of mucous and serous surfaces : nay more, that 
such ulceration of internal and vital organs, almost 
without exception, is death. We prevent, therefore, 
but cannot cure consumption, as lamentable experi- 
ence has taught us. In a word, we need not dis- 
sections to tell us that the organic affections of vital 
parts usually prove fatal. Be it no longer said that 



NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 263 

they are essential to successful practice ; for it is 
most disreputable to science and the profession to 
have it supposed even that one consigned to our 
skill, should have expired without our knov/ledge 
(care being out of the question) of his malady. 

" Seeing clearly our weapons must be such as to 
combat with morbid {i. e. deranged) function, it re- 
mains to be inquired what aids towards relief or 
cure have been derived through dissections? Our 
remedies, of any real efficacy at least, for the relief 
(cure, if you would rather) of functional derange- 
ment, are few ; and these with a view to subdue in- 
flammation, correct secret secretion, promote or re-r 
strain excretion, and give tone or vigour to the sys- 
tem. We are not assuredly indebted to dissections 
for our treatment of inflammation, morbid secretion, 
or debility ; but rather to the lights of function and 
regimen, aided not a little by pathological and the- 
rapeutical experiences. 

*' I pass over the absurdity of medical testimony 
(grounded on dissections) in cases of abortion, rape, 
infanticide, idiotism, and insanity ; and, from mo- 
tives of delicacy, forbear the discussion of them. 
Under dread of poisqn, dissections at-best are falla- 
cious, and our knowledge derived more from chemi- 
cal than anatomical acumen. 

" Your ' report,' Sir, if I comprehend it aright, 
is to the effect — first, that all must dissect to qualify 
them for successful practice; secondly, that the bo- 
dies of executed criminals are insufficient for the 
purpose ; and, thirdly, that the repeal of such Act, 
and the substitution of another (confessedly more 
productive) are essential to the perfection of medi- 
cal science, and the well-being of mankind. 

" Now, first, as to the expediency ! 'Tis obvious; 
pardon me, Sir, that by far too much importance 



^^4 NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 

Las been attached to the testimony of Sir Astley 
Cooper and Mr. Abernethy, who are teachers of 
anatomy, and not physic, in London. I mean no 
disrespect nor disparagement towards these gentle- 
men ; but why this stress upon their testimony ? Sir 
A. C, after many years' painful and toilsome expe- 
rience, is doomed to confess that the operations are 
a reproach to surgery. Mr. A., to his honour be 
it said, has ever been opposed to them. It would 
be superfluous at this moment to speak of their phy- 
sical attainments, (apart, at any rate, from dissections 
and operations,) notwithstanding I affirm that these, 
and not dissections, are the very bulwarks of surge- 
ry. It were as manifest as the * sun at noon-day,' 
that bodies became needful in support of the college 
law and rage for dissections ; but your honourable 
Com.mittee required bona fide, to know whether 
such dissections were demanded for the benefits of 
science and prosperity of the human race ; for re- 
quisites assuredly they had made them for students 
passing college, or becoming licentiates of the So- 
ciety of Apothecaries. I may humbly be permit- 
ted to suggest — teach students upon more rational 
and physical principles ; require them to possess a 
sufficient classical education ; sound physiological, 
pathological, therapeutical, and chemical know- 
ledge ; and afl^ord them ample physical and surgi- 
cal experiences ; then hopes may be entertained of 
their becoming expert and skilful practitioners. 

"Be it not said, for mercy's sake, that we require 
many operative surgeons, (when, in fact, were mat- 
ters managed better, few, very few, indeed, would 
be needed ;) and let these be select, so that, matured 
by much experience, they may be fully competent 
to the important duties thereof 

*' Clinical experiences, beyond all your disseq- 



NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 265 

tions, prove a treasure to the student ; these emi- 
nently and truly teach him to distinguish between 
functional derangement and organic affection ; to 
perceive the operation and the effects of remedies 
themselves, and, I had almost said, the divine in- 
fluence of regimen. Emboldened by such, and the 
like, experiences, with confidence ere long he pre- 
dicts the convalescence, or perchance the dissolu- 
tion, of his patient. To sum up — the true doctrines 
of physic are founded upon unerring and funda- 
mental principles ; and such, believe me, as are emi- 
nently calculated to avert pending calamity ; i. e. to 
supersede the necessity for operations, which, at best, 
are painful and calamitous to the afflicted. 

" By the judicious treatment of gravel and stone; 
hernia and aneurisms ; glandular affections and 
white swellings ; fractures and dislocations ; to the 
honour of science and the profession be it said, we 
save much and calamitous suffering in the world. 

" Not to encroach upon your valuable time. Sir, 
or be thought prolix, I'proceed, secondly, to remark, 
briefly, on the insufflciency of the bodies of executed 
criminals for scientific purposes. Immortality to 
our predecessors, we require not dissections at this 
day for the acquirement, much less the perfection, 
of physiological and physical science. The me- 
chanism of the human body is amply displayed 
through the medium of engravings and preserva- 
tions ; and its functions, derangements, and disea- 
ses, are to be known and amended only upon the 
living body. 

*' Most unvdllingly I advert to morbid dissections, 
the last refuge of the inexperienced, and the blot of 
our art. Few things have tended more to cast a 
stigma upon the profession, and afford a disrelish 
for dissections, than the heartless performance of 
23 



266 NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 

them in private life. Forlorn, indeed, our hope, if 
we expect to attain skill or eminence in the profes- 
sion through such dissections. I speak not from 
|)rejudice, personality, or mere hypothesis, but from 
ong and extensive observation and experienca 
Why most of our sudden deaths originating in de- 
rangement of vital functions, leave no traces of the 
source of dissolution behind them ; and such as 
expire under more lingering indisposition, manifest 
to the experienced at least, organic affections pecu- 
liar to the structures of the affected organ or organs. 
We require not, therefore, to ascertain such appear- 
ances, nor would our doing so aid us at all in the 
knowledge or cure of them. To be brief — civilized 
beings naturally are averse to dissections ; and God 
forbid they should ever become reconciled to them, 
or adieu to the ties of consanguinity, and those de- 
voutly-to-be-admired sympathies of our natures, for 
which Britons, I am proud to confess, have been 
renowned from time immemorial. Thirdly, Sir, 
you resolve to legalize pawper dissections, after tht 
frnvisions of foreigners, and speak of the advanta- 
ges to be derived from them. The thing itself may- 
be politic enough in the way of trade ; but, for the 
honour of science, the credit of the profession, and 
the peace of society, I conjure you to pause ere 
your committee sanction with their honoured names 
so degrading, and at the same time so uncalled-for 
an expedient. Since, however, we must model our 
practice and schools of physic after the fashion of 
the French, I claim privilege briefly to advert to 
the benefits which science and the profession hither- 
to have derived from them. 

" In anatomy and physiology, it must be confess- 
ed, the French have excelled; but have they com- 
paratively benefited physicor surgery by it? Hav« 



NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 267 

Drs. Gall and Spurzheim, by their minute dissec- 
tions of the brain, added anything to our knowledge 
of it? We required not to know the seat and direc- 
tions (nor indeed the functions) of its vast nerves 
and blood-vessels. Why, therefore, perplex our- 
selves about its mental developments, placed, doubt- 
less, for the wisest of purposes, by an inscrutable 
Providence, beyond the reach or the scrutiny of man? 
Nor have we yet to learn, — thanks not to dissec- 
tions, but experiences — that the brain's derange- 
ment of circulation is productive of correspond- 
ent derangement of function, and its organic af- 
fection, death. Bichat, Broussais, and Majendie, 
it is due to them to say, have called attention to 
mucous and serous surfaces, hitherto but insufficient- 
ly regarded (and imperfectly understood by many) 
in practice. Notwithstanding such acknowledged 
advantages, the French, 1 affirm, are inefficient prac- 
titioners. Do they not to this day, under the most 
acute inflammations (and inflammations, moreover, 
of vital organs,) content themselves wath ptisans, 
syrups, anodynes, leechings, and enemas, calcula- 
ted for the relief only of particular symptoms, leav- 
ing the malady itself to commit its ravages upon 
the affected organ, or constitution generally ? How 
calamitous the consequences of tampering with the 
inflammations of vital organs ! — take, for example, 
the lungs. Has not consumption aflx)rded us a les- 
son; bid defiance to our every exertion, in spite of 
our discoveries and dissections ; and are we still at 
a loss as to its origin, or the prevention (cure I main- 
tain to be out of the question) of it ? If not, why 
trifle (worse than trifle) with palliatives, which, 
under fevers and inflammations (without more effi- 
cient measures) seal the doom of the patients ? A 
breath as to their surgical eminence, and I am done. 



268 NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 

Baron Larry and Dupuytricn have distinp-uislied 
themselves in surgery ; but have they not been in- 
debted mainly to their experiences ? The former 
had most extensive field and hospital practice during 
the campaigns of the immortal Buonaparte ; and the 
latter for many years has been engaged in the per- 
formance of vast hospital duties, being at this mo- 
ment chief surgeon to the Hotel Dieu, in France. 

" Impressed with the firmest conviction (inspired 
by an almost unparalleled devotedness to the pro- 
fession) that experience, and by no means dissec- 
tions, qualify alone for successful practice, I have 
been induced to impart these solemn convictions to 
you, Sir, in justice to a much-injured profession, 
and compassion towards a suffering public, whose 
condition (in lieuof the Act contemplated) you would 
best ameliorate by rendering exhumation felony^ 
and quackery fraud. 

*' Finally, Sir, would mankind benefit their health 
or condition in society, I conjure them, without de- 
lay, to petition Parliament against a measure con- 
fessedly uncalled for, and fraught with sufterance 
and degradation to them. ' Virtus in actione consistit,' 
" I have the honour to be, Sir, 

" Your obedient, humble servant, 

" Wm. Horsley, M. D. 

"North Shields, Dec. 1828." 

Now, my friends, observe, that no answer was 
ever given to this letter. Doctor Payne, an 
eminent physician of Nottingham, has just publish- 
ed a letter, sent by him to Warburton, express- 
ing similar opinions, and concluding with the fol- 
lowing words: 

*' There appears to be a path now presenting it- 
self, by which the detestable crimes of Burking and 
violating the remains of the dead may be no iongei 



NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 269 

practised. The remains of murderers should as 
usual be given for dissection, but the bodies of none 
others; and transportation for those who steal or 
receive dead bodies. A law should also be passed 
to compel the teaching of anatomy by the artificial 
subject, as in France. 

" I hope the idea of giving up the bodies of the 
unclaimed dead will be immediately abandoned, as 
it increases the exasperation which is constantly 
souring the minds of the working and middle class- 
es, and rendering it unsafe to dwell in the land. 
It reminds them of the words of Southey the poet : — 

' ' Wretched is the infant's lot, 
Born within the straw-roof'd cot ; 
Be he generous, wise, or brave, 
He must only be a slave ! 
Long, long labour, httle rest, 
Still to toil, to be oppressed ; 
D^sin'd by taxes of his store, — 
Punished next for being poor. 
This is the poor wretch's lot, 
Born within the straw-roof'd cot.' 

" Yes, the people make their remarks, * When 
we have lost our all, and have outlived our friends 
and relations, our bodies are to be given up for 
dissection !' 

" I remain, with much respect, 

" Yours, respectfully, 
"H. Payne, M. D. 
"Nottingham, Dec. 10, 1831." 

Thus, then, the preamble of the bill is false : this 
cutting up of human bodies is unnecessary to the 
learning of surgery. But now, if it were necessa- 
ry to the perfection of that science, still a law like 
this ought not to be passed ; and nothing ought to 
be done tending to put the bodies of the people on 
a level with the bodies of beasts. The assertion of 
the advocates of this carcass-cutting system is this : 
that unless the carcass and cutting-fellows be al- 
23* 



270 NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 

lowed to carry on their practices, the knowledge 
of surgery will he imperfect ; and that, therefore, 
the hacking- and bloody practice must continue, and 
dead human bodies (to use the vulgar and unfeel- 
ing phrase of Hume) must become '* cheaj)''' in the 
market; or that some complaints to which we are 
liable must remain without a cure, and that many 
persons would, of course, die sooner than they would 
die, if the cutting and hacking system continued, 
and if Hume's cheap human flesh continued rnniply 
to supply the market. 

This is the ASSERTION on which Warbur- 
TON, Hume, Denm an, and the rest of them, ground 
their project for making human bodies " CHEAP," 
as Hume calls it; and the bill, taken along with 
this argument of these men, will, if it become a 
law, say this to the nation : " Your dead bodies 
must be made to come cheap to those who deal in 
them and cut them up ; or some of you will die sooner 
than you otherwise would die.^^ This is the sum 
total of all that they have to say. Hume has totted 
the matter up ; and this is the " tottar of it. And 
now, my friends, hear my answer ioXhe^Q advocates 
of free trade_ in your flesh, blood, and bones. 

First of all ; we have not only the opinions ot 
Dr. HoRSLEY against the utility of the butchery, 
but his opinion that it is mischievous ; and he pro- 
duces other high authorities in support of his opi- 
nions. But we have his reasons in support of the 
opinions ; and we have, as far as I have observed, 
had no ansvjer to these reasons. 

Next ; if this cutting-up work be so necessary, 
so indispensable, to the learning of surgery ; how 
comes it that this did not use to he the case ? How 
comes it that this traffic in human bodies, that the 
making of human flesh and bones '* cheap,^^ as 



NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 271 

Hume calls it, was never found to be necessary 
BEFORE ? Men's bodies have always been con- 
structed as they are now ; they have always been 
subject to the same ailments that they are subject to 
now ; life has always been valued as highly as it 
is now ; and yet never until now was this cutting 
up and hacking to pieces of the dead people deem- 
ed necessary to the health of the living people; 
and never until now did a band of surgeons take 
it into their heads to apply to the government 
to set aside the ancient law of the land, in order 
that they might have free trade in human bo- 
dies, to cut up and hack about at their pleasure ! 
This is like the case of the poor-law : it did very 
well for ttco hundred and fifty years ; but now it 
is found out that it does harm, and that STURGES 
BOURNE'S BILLS, and HARNESSING the 
poor, and that DISPOSING OF THEIR DEAD 
BODIES to be cut up, are necessary. Strange 
thing, that this Warburton should tell us, that he 
means his l-dw for the benefit of the poor, w^hile he 
talks of no law to repeal Sturges Bourne^ s Bills ; 
no law to put a stop to the harnessing of them, and 
making them draw like BEASTS OF BURDEN; 
no law to prevent hired overseers from cutting off the 
hair of young girls ; no law to prevent them from 
being treated like beasts, and only a law to make it 
no crime to receive their dead bodies and to hack 
them to pieces ; and this too out of kindness to them ! 
So much f(jr authority and experience to show 
that the horrible traffic in human flesh is not neces- 
sary. Indeed, as Dr. Horsley says, it is of no 
use to any body but illiterate quacks : it is, as he 
says, the scandal and disgrace of a most learned, 
honourable, and useful profession. Rousseau said 
long ago, that a great increase of the number of 



272 NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 

medical and surgical practitioDers was a sure sign 
of the decay of a nation : and this is one of the 
signs of our decay at this moment. But, all this 
aside ; setting all these arguments against the hor- 
rible practice down for nothing ; and admitting the 
above assertion of the advocates of free trade in 
human bodies to be true : admitting that your dead 
bodies must, in the Avords of Hume and Denman, 
be made " cheap^^ to those who cut them up : ad- 
mitting that " your dead bodies must be made to 
come cheaj) to those who deal in them and cut them 
up, or that some of you would die sooner than you 
othervnse would dieJ^ I deny it ; but, let us, for 
argument's sake, admit it in its fullest exteiit ; and 
then let us see, whether it be not far better that we 
should be exposed to the endurance of some, and 
even to great bodily ills ; and that some, and even 
many of us, should die ^o^Tit^r than we should if the 
horrible butchery were to go on: the question is, 
whether this would not be 'preferable to the suffering 
of this traffic to continue; whether it would not be 
better for us to endure these ills, and be subject td^ 
these dangers, than to insure, even to INSURE, our- 
selves against them, by sanctioning this horrible traf- 
fic in dead bodies? This is the question: and this ques- 
tion every man that has any thing of real humanity left 
about him, every man who cannot coolly tot-up the 
value of human feelings, will, without any hesitation, 
not only answer in the affirmative, but will iee\ some- 
what offended at the question being put to him. 

Those who make the above stated assertion, and 
who, on its being admitted, seem to think it conclu- 
sive for their purpose, proceed upon the truly base 
idea, that there is NOTHING SO VALUABLE 
AS LIFE ; an idea just upon a level with the in- 
stinctive feeling of the most insensible of brutes. 



NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 273 

But, is this the idea of those who are worthy to be 
called men and women ? Where is the man (Avor- 
thy of that name) who would not prefer the death 
of a wife or daughter to her prostitution ; where is 
the man (worthy of that name) who would not pre- 
fer his own death to his assent to such prostitution ? 
In thousands of instances, men (and working- men 
too) have gone to certain death, rather than live 
with the reproach of having betrayed other men. 
There is, then, something more valuable than life ; 
and is the value of life, then, to be put in competi- 
tion with the value of all those feelings which dis- 
tinguish men from brutes ? And all, yea all, these 
feelings must be banished from the breast, before 
the mind will cease to contemplate with reverence 
and awe the remains of the dead. 

As to the Christian religion, it is pure, not 
hypocrisy, but sheer impudence, to pretend to be- 
lieve that it can long exist in a country where the 
law makes human bodies the subject of open traffic, 
where it authorizes the cutting of them up, the rip- 
ping and hacking of them to pieces, w^th no more ce- 
remony than the cutting-up ofthebodies of sheep and 
pigs. We all know, for we have all first or last 
felt, that the bare sight of a dead human body fills 
us with serious thoughts, and that even a funeral, 
passing by, has, in some degree, the same efiect 
Can this continue to be the case, if it shall become 
a fact familiar to every mind, that a human body 
has belonging to it nothing more sacred than the 
body of a hog or a dog 1 People of all the sects of 
Christians have been careful to set apart places for 
the burial of the dead. However they disagree in 
other matters, they are all of accord in this, to re- 
verence the remains of the dead. But how is this 
feeling to exist, when they shall know that the 



274 NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 

trade in dead bodies is free ; and that, as Sir Ro- 
bert Inglis states it, there are always " EIGHT 
HUNDRED MEN m London, engaged in learn- 
ing hoio to cut human bodies to pieces f 

If this law pass, what becomes of the " conse- 
cration of ground V^ What becomes of the Church 
Service 1 What becomes of the Rubrick : ^vhat of 
'' the burial of the dead ?-^ Dispense with that; 
declare, by law, that that is useless ; and, th'^^n, 
where will there be to be found even a parson, though 
with half a-dozen benefices, brazen enough to tell 
any of the people of any of his parishes, that any 
fart of the Book of (Jommon Prayer is w^orthy of 
their attention ? W^hat, if a law like this be passed, 
will any parson, after that, demand fees for saying 
prayers over dead bodies ? It is as well, for morals 
and religion, that those bodies be sold and cut up, 
as that they be buried in a church-yard w^ith the 
usual solemnities ; or, it is not. If the latter, the 
intended law is injurious to morals and religion : 
if the former, we have long been paying burial 
fees merely to fatten the parsons. In short, it must 
be evident to every m'an who reflects bat for'a mo- 
ment, that a belief in a future state of existence is 
impossible to be kepi alive, for any length of time, 
in a country whea:e the law makes (as law^ would 
make) no distinction in the treatment of the dead 
body of a man and that of the dead body of a horse ; 
both being alike articles of traffic ; both being open- 
ly cut up for the use of the purchaser ; both being 
hacked about with an equal absence of all ceremony. 

We all know the power of habit ; we all know 
that the blackest crimes proceed from small begin- 
nings ; theft, robbery, burglary, murder, is gene- 
rally the march. The habit of our thoughts has 
made the most of men hesitate at the commission 



NEW DEAD-BODY BILL, 275 

of the last horrid crime : they have hitherto seen 
something- in a human body that held back their 
hands : but when, as in the case of the monster 
Bishop, they have been accustomed to consider hu- 
man bodies as nothing more sacred than those of 
pigs and sheep, what is to restrain them from resort- 
ing to ihe killing of those bodies ? This bill may, 
perhaps, not directly, authorize the selling of the 
bodies of poor people dying in poor-houses and 
hospitals and prisons ; but that such are the tendency 
and intention of it nobody can doubt. It is Avell 
known, that the rich have the means of protecting 
the dead bodies of their relations, and that the poor 
have not. And where is the man so brutal as to 
say that his heart is not chilled with the thought of 
proclaiming openly to the unfortunate poor, that 
their carcasses when dead are to be sold for dissec- 
tion ? What ! is there a man in England, to pro- 
pose this 1 And is this proposition to be made even 
to the Parliament, and that too in a country where 
the depositories of the dead, and the decent inter- 
ment of dead bodies, have ^Jways been objects of 
such attention ? Are there men hardy enough fox 
this 1 What ! the poor labourer, who, after hav- 
ing toiled all his life: after having brought himself 
to death, at a premature old age, very likely, by 
the excess of his toil ; is he, because in his old age 
he is compelled to resort to the parish for relief, to 
be harassed in his last moments with the thought 
that in a few minutes the butchers will have their 
knives in his belly, and be hacking and chopping 
hira to pieces like the carcass of a dead dog ? Oh I 
no. England will never see this. Is the husband 
to see his dead wife taken away in the butcher's 
cart, and carried to the «slaughter-house, instead of 
having the mournful duty to perform of following 



276 NEW DEAD-BODY BILL. 

her to the grave ? Are fathers and mothers to see 
their children, and are children to see their parents, 
tossed into the bloody cart, and carried away for dis- 
section 1 The very thought fills me, and I trust it 
will fill every Englishman who is worthy of the 
name, with indignation not to be expressed. 

The working people in the country have given 
the best possible proof of their abhorrence of any 
law, having such a tendency, by forming themselves 
into CLUBS for the purpose of providing the means 
of WATCHING THEIR OWN GRAVES, 
AND THOSE OF THEIR NEAR AND 
DEAR RELATIONS; a fact to their everlasting 
honour, and to the everlasting disgrace of those who 
have rendered this measure necessary. Talk of 
Reform, indeed ! The people will be able easily 
to estimate the character and views of those " Re- 
formers^^ who want to make dead human bodies 
" cheap^^ in the dissecting market ! This is now, 
apparently, become a measure of the "-Reforming 
Ministry, ^^ The people will at last have to rely, 
I dare say, upon the Lords again ; and if they drive 
this bill from them with indignation, they will not 
only act justly, huX wisely ; and will, by this one 
act, do more for the honour and stability of their 
order, than by all the other means that human wit 
would be able to devise. 

Now, my friends, keep your eye on all those 
whom you perceive to be in favour of this hill. I 
will do my best to place them safely upon record. 
For my part, my determination is, that if this bill 
pass, to do my utmost to cause its repeal, and never 
to hold any confidential intercourse with any one 
of those who may have supported it. And in the 
meanwhile I remain you^ friend, 

Wm. cobbett. 



HITRAL RIDES. 277 

NOTE TO SERMON ON GAMBLING. 
This Vile paper-money and funding system; this 
system of Dutch descent, begotten by Bishop Bur- 
net and born in hell ; this system has turned every 
thing into a gamble. There are hundreds of men 
who live by being the agents to carry on gambling. 
They reside here in the Wen ; many of the gam- 
blers live in the country ; they write up to their 
gambling agent, whom they call their stockbro- 
ker ; he gambles according to their order ; and 
they receive the profit or stand to the loss. Is it 
possible to conceive a viler calling than that of an 
agent for the carrying on of gambling ! And yet 
the vagabonds call themselves gentlemen ; or, at 
least, look upon themselves as the superiors of 
those who sweep the kennels. In like manner is 
the hop-gamble carried on. The gambling agents 
in the Wen make the bets for the gamblers in the 
country ; and, perhaps, millions are betted during 
the year, upon the amount of a duty, which, at the 
most, scarcely exceeds a quarter of a million. In 
such a state of things how are you to expect young 
men to enter on a course of patient industry? 
How are you to expect that they will seek to ac- 
quire fortune and fame by study or by application 
of any kind 1 



Extracts from a work by the same author ^ called 

RURAL RIDES. 
I got to GouDHURST to breakfast, and, as I 
heard that the Dea7i of Rochester was to preach a 
sermon in behalf of the National Schools, I stop- 
ped to hear him. In waiting for his Reverence, I 
went to the Methodist Meeting-house, where I 
24 



278 RURAL RIDES. 

found the Sunday School boys and girls assem- 
bled, to the almost filling of the place, which was 
about thirty feet long and eighteen wide. The 
*' Minister''^ was not come, and the Schoolmaster 
was reading to the children out of a tract-book, and 
shaking the brimstone bag at them most furiously. 
This schoohTiaster was a sleek-looking 3^oung fel- 
low : his skm perfectly tight : well fed I'll war- 
rant him : and he has discovered the way of living, 
v/ithout work, on the labour of those that do work. 
There were 36 little fellows in smock-frocks, and 
about as many girls, listening to him ; and I dare 
say he eats as nqtuch meat as any ten of them. By 
this time the Dean, I thought, would be coming on ; 
and, therefore, to the church I went ; but to my 
great disappointment, I found that the parson was 
operating preparatory to the appearance of the 
Dean, who was to come on in the afternoon, when 
I, agreeably to my plan, must be off The sermon 
was from 2 Chronicles, ch. 31. v. 21, and the 
words of this text described King Hezekiah as a 
most zealous man, doing whatever he did with all 
his heojrt. I write from memory, mind, and, there- 
fore, I do not pretend to quote exact words ; and I 
may be a little in error, perhaps, as to chapter or 
verse. The object of the preacher was to hold up 
to his hearers, the example of Hezekiah, and par- 
iicularly in, the case of the school affair. He called 
upon them to subscribe with all their hearts ; but, 
alas ! how little of persausive power was there in 
what he said ! No effort to make them see the use 
of the schools. No inducement proved to exist. 
No argument, in short, nor any thing to move. 
No appeal either to the reason, or to the feeling. 
All was general, common-place, cold observation; 
and that, too, in language which the far greater 



RURAL RIDES. 279 

part of the hearers could not understand. This 
church is about 110 feet long and 70 feet wide in 
the clear. It would hold three thousand people, 
and it had in it 214, besides 53 Sunday School or 
National School boys ; and these sat together, in a 
sort of lodge, up in a corner, 16 feet long and 10 
feet wide. Now, will any Parson Malthus, or 
any body else, have the impudence to tell me, that 
this church was built for the use of a population 
not more numerous than the present ? To be sure, 
when this church was built, there could be no idea 
of a methodist meeting coming to assist the church, 
and as little, I dare say, was it expected, that the 
preachers in the church would ever call upon the 
faithful to subscribe money to be sent up to one 
Joshua Watson (living in a Wen) to be by him 
laid out in " promoting Christian Knowledge i^ 
but, at any rate, the Methodists cannot take away 
above four or fiYe hundred ; and what, then, was 
this great church built for, if there were no more 
people, in those days, at Go ud hurst, than there 
are now ? It is very true, that the labouring peo- 
ple have, in a great measure, ceased to go to 
church. There were scarcely any of that class at 
this great country church to-day. I do not believe 
there were ten. I can remember when they were 
so numerous, that the parson could not attempt to 
begin, till the rattling of their nailed shoes ceased. 
I have seen, I am sure, five hundred boys and men 
in smock-frocks coming out of church at one time. 
To-day has been a fine day : there would have 
been many at church to-day, if ever there are ; and 
here I have another to add to the many things that 
convince me, that the labouring classes have, in 
great part, ceased to go to church ; that their way of 
think ing and feeling with regard to both church and 



280 RURAL RIDES- 

clergy are totally changed ; and that there is now 
very little moral hold which the latter possess. 
This f reaching for money to support the schools 
is a most curious affair altogether. The King 
sends a circular letter to the bishops (as I under- 
stand it) to cause subscriptions for the schools ; 
and the bishops (if I am rightly told) tell the parish 
clergy to send the money, when collected, to 
Joshua Watson, the Treasurer of a Society in 
the Wen, '' for promoting Christian Knowledge /'* 
What ! the church and all its clergy put into mo- 
tion to get money from the people, to send up to 
one Joshua Watson, a wine-merchant, or, late a 
wine-merchant, in Mincing Lane, Fenchurch- 
street, London, in order that the said wine-mer- 
chant may apply the money to the ''promoting of 
Christian Knowledge /" What ! all the deacons, 
priests, curates perpetual, vicars, rectors, prebends, 
doctors, deans, archdeacons, and fathers in God, 
right reverend and most reverend ; all ! yea all, 
engaged in getting money together to send to a 
wine-merchant that he may lay it out in the promo- 
ting of Christian knowledge in their own flocks ! 
Oh, brave wine-merchant ! What a prince of godli- 
ness must this wine-merchant be ! I say, wine-mer- 
chant, or late wine-merchant, of Mincing Lane, 
Fenchurch-street, London. And, for God's sake, 
some good parson, do send me up a copy of the 
King'' s circular, and also of the bishop'' s ordei to 
send the money to Joshua Watson ; for some 
precious sport we will have with Joshua and his 
** Society" before we have done with them! 

Coming through the village of Benenden, I 
heard a man, at my right, talking very loud about 
houses ! houses ! houses ! It was a Methodist par- 
son, in a hou^^ ''^^'='^. by the road side. I pulled 



RURAL RIDES. 281 

up, and stood still, in the middle of the road, but 
looking, in silent soberness, into the window 
(which was open) of the room in which the 
preacher was at work. I believe my stopping ra- 
ther disconcerted him ; for he got into shocking 
repetition. " Do you know," said he, laying great 
stress on the word know: "do you know,, that 
you have ready for you houses, houses I say; I 
say do you know; do you know that you have 
houses in the heavens not made with hands ? Do 
you know this from experience ! Has the blessed 
Jesus told you so ?" And, on he went to say, that, 
if Jesus had told them so, they would be saved, and 
that if he had not, and did not, they would be 
damned. Some girls whom I saw in the room, 
plump and rosy as could be, did not seem at all 
daunted by these menaces; and indeed, they ap- 
peared to me to be thinking much more about get- 
ting houses for themselves in this world first : just 
to see a little before they entered, or endeavoured to 
enter, or even thought much about, those " houses'^ 
of which the parson was speaking: houses with 
pig-styes and little snug gardens attached to them, 
together with all the other domestic and conjugal 
circumstances, these girls seemed to me to be pre- 
paring themselves for. The truth is, these fellows 
have no power on the minds of any but the miser- 
able. 

Scarcely had I proceeded a hundred yards from 
the place where this fellow was bawling, when I 
came to the very situation which he ought to have 
occupied, I mean the stocks, which the people ot 
Benenden have, with singular humanity, fitted 
up with a bench, so that the patient, while he is re- 
ceiving the benefit of the remedy, is not exposed to 
the danger of catching cold by sitting, as in other 
24* 



282 . RURAL RIDES. 

places, upon the ground, always damp and some- 
times actually wet. But I would ask the people of 
Benenden what is the use of this humane precau- 
tion, and, indeed, what is the use of the stocks them- 
selves, if, while a fellow is ranting and ba^vling in 
the manner just described at the distance of a hun- 
dred yards from the stocks, the stocks (as is here 
actually the case) are almost hidden by grass and 
nettles ? This, however, is the case all over the 
country ; not nettle^ and grass indeed smothering 
the stocks, but, I never see any feet peeping through 
the holes, any where, though I find methodist par- 
sons every where, and though the law compels the 
parishes to keep up all the pairs of stocks that exist 
in all parts of them ; and, in some parishes, they 
have to keep up several pairs. I am aware, that a 
good part of the use of the stocks is the terror they 
ought to produce. I am not supposing, that they 
are of no use because not continually fur7iished with 
legs. But, there is a wide difference between 
always and never ; and it is clear, that a fellow, 
who has had the stocks under his eye all his life- 
time, and has never seen a pair of feet peeping 
through them, will stand no more in awe of the 
stocks, than rooks do of an old shoyhoy, or than the 
Ministers or their agents do of Hobhouse and Bur- 
dett. Stocks that never pinch a pair of ancles are 
like ministerial responsibility ; a thing to talk 
about, but for no other use; a mere mockery; a 
thing laughed at by those whom it is intended to 
keep in check. It is time that the stocks were 
again in use, or that the expense of keeping them 
up were put an end to. This mild, this gentle^ 
Xhi& good-humoured sort of correction, is 7iot ercougk 
for our present rulers. But, mark the consequence ; 
gaols ten times as big as formerly ; houses of cor- 



RURAL RIDES. 283 

rection ; treadmills ; the hulks ; and the country 
filled with spies of one sort and another, game-spies^ 
or other spies, and if a hare or pheasant come to an 
antimely death, police-oficers from the Wen [Lon- 
don] are not unfrequently called down to find out 
and secure the bloody offender ! Mark lids, Eng- 
lishmen ! Mark how w^e take to those things, 
which we formerly ridiculed in the French ; and 
take them up too just as that brave and spirited peo- 
ple have shaken them off'! I saw, not long ago, an 
account of a Wen police-officer being sent into the 
country, where he assumed a disguise, joined some 
poachers, (as they are called,) got into their secrets^ 
went out in the night with them, and then (having 
laid his plans with the game-people) assisted to take 
them and convict them. What ! is this E?igla7id ? 
Is this the land of ''manly hearts V Is this the 
country that laughed at the French for their sub- 
missions ? What ! are police-officers kept for this ? 
Does the law say so ? However, thank God Al- 
mighty, the estates are passing away into the hands 
of those w^ho have had borrowed from them the 
money to uphold this monster of a system. The 
Debt ! The blessed Debt, will, at last, restore to us 
freedom. 

This Tenterden, is a market town, and a sin- 
gularly bright spot. It consists of one street, which 
is, in some places, more, perhaps, than tivo hundred 
feet wide. On one side of the street the houses 
have gardens before them, from 20 to 70 feet deep. 
The town is upon a hill ; the afternoon was very 
fine, and, just as I rose the hill and entered the 
street, the people had come out of church and were 
Roving along towards their houses. It was a 
very fine sight. Shahhily dressed people do not go to 



284 RURAL RIDES. 

church. I saw, in short, drawn out before me, the 
dress and beauty of the town ; and a great many 
very, very pretty girls I saw ; and saw them, too, 
in their best attire. I remember the girls in the 
Pays de Caux, and, really, I think those of Ten- 
TERDEN resemble them. I do not know why they 
should not ; for, there is the Pays de Caux, only 
just over the water ; just opposite this very place. 

The church at this place is a very large and fine 
old building. The tower stands upon a base thirty 
feet square. Like the church at Goudhurst, it 
will hold three thousand people. And, let it be ob- 
served, that when these churches were built, peo- 
ple had not yet thought of cramming them with 
fews, as a stable is filled with stalls. Those who 
built these churches had no idea that worshipping 
God meant, going to sit to iiear a man talk out 
what he called preaching. By worship, they meant 
very different things ; and, above all things, when 
they had made a fine and noble building, they did 
not dream of disfiguring the inside of it by filling 
its floor with large and deep boxes made of deal 
boards. In short, the floor was the place for the 
worshippers to stand or to kneel ; and there was no 
distinction ; no high place and no low place ; all 
were upon a level before God at any rate. Some 
were not stuck into pews lined with green or red 
cloth, while others were crammed into corners to 
stand erect, or sit on the floor. These odious dis- 
tinctions are of Protestant origin and growth. This 
lazy lolling in pews we owe to what is called the 
Reformation. A place filled Avith benches and boxes 
looks like an eating or a drinking place ; but cer- 
tainly not like a place of Worship. A Frenchman, 
who had been driven from St. Domingo to Phila- 
delphia by the Wilberforces of France, went to* 



RURAL RIDES. 



285 



church along with me one Sunday. He had never 
been in a Protestant place of worship before. Upon 
looking round him, and seeing every body comfort- 
ably seated, while a couple of good stoves were 
keeping the place as warm as a slack oven, he ex- 
claimed: '' Pardi! On sert Dieu bien a son aise 
ici /" That is, " Egad ! they serve God very much 
at their ease here !" I always think of this, when 
I see a church full of pews ; as, indeed, is now al- 
ways the case with our churches. Those who 
built these churches had no idea of this : they made 
their calculations as to the people to be contained 
in them, not making any allowance for deal boards. 
I often wonder how it is, that the present parsons 
are not ashamed to call the churches theirs ! They 
must know the origin of them ; and, how they can 
look at them, and, at the same time, revile the Ca- 
tholics, is astonisJMng to me. 

This evening Wave been to the Methodist Meet- 
ing-house. I was attracted, fairly drawn all down 
the street, by the singing. When I came to the 
place the parson was got into prayer. His hands 
were clenched together and held up, his face turn- 
ed up and back so as to be nearly parallel with the 
ceiling, and he was bawling away, with his '* do 
thou,^^ and " mayest thou^'^ and " may toe," enough 
to stun one. Noisy, however, as he was, he was 
unable to fix the attention of a parcel of girls in 
the gallery, whose eyes were all over the place, 
while his eyes were so devoutly shut up. After a 
deal of this rigmarole called prayer, came the 
preachy, as the negroes call it ; and a preachy it 
really was. Such a mixture of whining cant and 
of foppish affectation I scarcely ever heard in my 
life. The text was (I speak from memory) one of 
Saint Peter's Epistles (if he have more than one) 



286 RURAL RIDES. 

the 18th Chapter and 4th Verse. The words were 
to this amount : that, as the righteous would be sa- 
ved with difficulty, what must become of the un- 
godly and the sinner ! After as neat a dish of non- 
sense and of impertinences as one could wish to have 
served up, came the distinction between the un- 
godly and the sinner. The sinner was one who 
did moral wrong ; the ungodly one, who did no 
moral wrong, but who was not regenerated. Both, ' 
he positively told us, were to be damned. One was 
just as bad as the other. Moral rectitude was to do 
nothing in saving the man. He was to be damned, 
unless born again, and how was he to be born 
again, unless he came to the regeneration shop, 
and gave the fellows money? He distinctly told 
us, that a man perfectly moral, might be damned ; 
and that " the vilest of the vile, and the basest of 
the base'^ (I quote his veryword^" would be saved 
if they became regenerate ; and tflit Colliers, whose 
souls had been as black as their coals, had, by re- 
generation, become bright as the saints that sing 
before God and the Lamb." And will the Edin- 
burgh Reviewers again find fault with me for cut- 
ting at this bawling, canting crew ? Monstrous it 
is to think that the Clergy of the Church really 
encourage these roving fanatics. The Church seems 
aware of its loss of credit and of power. It seems 
willing to lean even upon these men ; who, be it 
observed, seem, on their part, to have taken the 
Church under their protection. They always 
pray for the Ministri) ; I mean the ministry at 
Whitehall. They are most " loyaV^ souls. The 
THING protects them; and they lend their aid in 
wpholding the thing. What silly, nay, what base 
creatures those must be, who really give their mo- 
7iey, give their pennies, which ought to buy bread 



RURAL RIDES. 287 

to their own children ; who thus give their money 
to these lazy and impudent fellows, who call them- 
selves ministers of God, who prowl about the 
country, living easy and jovial lives upon the fruit 
of the labour of other people. However, it is, in 
some measure, these people's fault. If they did not 
give, the others could not receive. I wish to see 
every labouring man well fed and well clad ; but, 
really, the inan who gives any portion of his earn- 
ings to these fellows, deserves to want: he de- 
serves to be pinched with hunger : misery is the 
just reward of this worst species of prodigality. 

The singing makes a great part of what passes 
in these meeting-houses. A number of women 
and girls singing together make yerj sweet sounds. 
Few men there are who have not felt the power of 
sounds of this sort. Men are sometimes pretty 
nearly bewitched, without knowing how. JEyes do 
a good deal, but tongues do more. We may talk 
of sparkling eyes and §nowy bosoms as long as 
we please ; but, what are these with a croaking, 
masculine voice ? The parson seemed to be fully 
aware of the importance of this part of the " ser- 
vice.^^ The subject of his hymn was something 
about love : Christian love ; love of Jesus ; but 
still it was about love ; and the parson read, or 
gave out, the verses, in a singularly soft and sigh- 
ing voice, with his head on one side, and giving it 
rather a swing, I am satisfied, that the singing 
forms great part of the attraction. Young girls 
like to sing ; and young men like to hear them. 
Nay, old ones too ; and as I have just said, it was 
the singing that drew me three hundred yards down 
the street at Tenterden, to enter this meeting- 
house. Bythe-by, I wrote some Hymiis myself 
and published them in '* Two-penny TrashP I will 



288 RURAL RIDES. .'.V^-r ;7~ 

4.. '^ ^ ^ 

'a, € 
give any Methodist parson leave to put them into 
his hymn-book. >;-"<^i"737- 

A parson said to me, once, by letter : " your reli- 
gion, Mr. Cobbett, seems to me to be altogether 
foliticalP " Very much so indeed," answered I, 
" and well it may, since I have been furnished with 
a creed which makes fart of an Act of Parlia- 
ment J^ And, the fact is, I am no Doctor of Divi- 
nity, and like a religion, any religion, that tends to 
make men innocent and benevolent and happy, by 
taking the best possible means of furnishing them 
with plenty to eat and drink and wear. I am a 
Protestant of the Church of England, and, as such, 
blush to see, that more than half the parsonage- 
houses are wholly g on e^ or are become mere hovels. 
What I have WTitten on the " Protestant Re- 
formation," has proceeded entirely from a sense 
of justice towards our calumniated Catholic fore- 
fathers, to whom we owe all those of our institu- 
tions that are worthy of our admiration and grati- 
tude. I have not written as a Catholic, but as an 
Englishman; yet, a sincere Catholic must feel 
some little gratitude towards me ; and, if there was 
an ungrateful reptile in the neighbourhood of Pres- 
ton, to give, as a toajt, " success to Stanley and 
Wood,^^ the conduct of those Catholics that I have 
seen here has, as far as I am concernedj amply 
compensated for his baseness. 

THE END. 



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